Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Reverie
by Azure-Rouge
Summary: .Rewritten. As the war escalates,the Alliance and ZAFT are dragging the rest of the world into chaos. As for the Equatorial Union,all their hopes of being liberated from the Alliance lies on one ship. Retelling of GSD from Equatorial Union's perspective.
1. PrePhase: Technical Data

The following would be the primary technologies used for the first portion of the story. This page would be continually updated as the story progresses in order to keep up with the appearance of new machines and mechs. For now, there are only the Legacy and the Azure Strike. Though this may seem annoying to some readers out there, I'm taking it slowly to avoid spoilers.

**RP-BSX-01 Legacy**

Name : Legacy

Class : Equatorial Union Luna-class Warship

Manufacturer/s : Equatorial Union & Morgenroete Inc.

First Deployment : C.E. 73

Designation : RP-BSX-01

Type : Experimental Assault Ship / Mobile Base Command Center

Weapons:

2x 'Logres' Mk.2 Positron Cannon

2x Girflet Mk.20 225cm high energy beam cannon

18x CIWS 'Igraine'

2x Tintagel 115cm rapid-fire cannons

10x Surface-to-air missile launchers

32x Large missile tubes for Leodegrance, Argante and Merlin missiles

32x Anti-air launchers for Avalon missiles

4x torpedo launchers (rear)

8x torpedo launchers (front)

Design Features:

Phase Shift Armor

Beam Refracting Energy Barrier for bridge

Laminated Armor of unknown thickness

Linear Catapults x2

STRIDE Launchers x2

Propulsion:

8x Thermonuclear Pulse Thrusters

4x Frontal Thermonuclear Pulse Thrusters

10x Small Thermonuclear Pulse Thrusters

**ZGMF-X03A Azure Strike**

Model Number: ZGMF-X03A

Code Name: Azure Strike

Unit Type: Multi-role Prototype Mobile Suit

Manufacturer: ZAFT

Operator: OMNI

First Deployment: December 02, C.E.73

Accomodation: Pilot only, standard cockpit

Dimensions: 18.00 meters tall

Weight:(without Striker Pack) 65.2 metric tons

Powerplant: Ultracompact Nuclear Fission Reactor

Equipment/Design features:

- hard points for equipping Striker Packs

- Variable Phase Shift Armor

- N-Jammer Canceller

Fixed Equipment:

1x MA-M20 Lupus beam rifle

2x Schneider combat knives

2x MX2200 beam shield generator

2x MA-M02G Super Lacerta beam saber, stored at the back

2x MMI-M15E Xiphias 3 rail cannon

Additional Equipment:

- AF-SS01A Skies Striker pack

- SF-AS01A Aether Striker pack

**Azure Strike Striker packs**

**AF-SS01A Skies Striker pack**

Type : Atmospheric Flight pack

Length : 8.85 meters

Wingspan (open wings) : 22.2 meters

Speed:

Azure Skies (Azure Strike + Skies Striker pack) Mach 2.2

Skies Flyer (STRIDE Flyer + Skies Striker pack) Mach 4.1

Equipment:

2x "Balmung" 14.20 meter anti-ship sword

2x MA-6J "Hyper Fortis" beam cannon

2x SS01A-WC5S "Wing Cutter" sharp-edged wings

**SF-AS01A Aether Striker pack**

Type : Trans-atmospheric Flight pack / Low Earth-orbit launch pack

Length : 7.5 meters

Wingspan : 15.75 meters

Speed:

Azure Aether Combat mode (Azure Strike + Aether Striker Full Equipment) Mach 0.75

Azure Aether Launch mode (Azure Strike + Aether Striker Stock Equipment) 31,875 km/h

Aether Flyer Combat mode (STRIDE Flyer + Aether Striker Full Equipment) Mach 1.12

Aether Flyer Launch mode (STRIDE Flyer + Aether Striker Stock Equipment) 35,035 km/h

Equipment:

2x "Caliburn" 16.12 meter long anti-ship sword

2x "Aequitas" high energy long range beam cannon

1x FATUM-01 Mk.2 Sub-flight lifter

2x MR-Q20X "Tiger Claw" wing-mounted beam blade

2 x MA-M02S "Preface Lacerta" retracted beam cannon-mounted short beam saber

2 x MA-6J-B "Hyper Fortis" concealed beam cannon

**AR-SF01A STRIDE Flyer (STRIker DEployment Flyer)**

Type : Prototype Manned Striker Pack Delivery System

Length : 3.45 meters

Speed (independent) Mach 0.8

Design Features:

Enhanced Radiowave Jamming Equipment

Lightwave Communication System

Lightwave Detection and Ranging (LIDAR)

Equipment:

2x "Pulse" 50mm rapid-fire vulcan


	2. Phase 01: Wings of the Azure Skies

_**Disclaimer: **__I do not own the Gundam series, from the beginning to the SEED trilogy… not even a single piece of scrap metal or orbiting debris…_

_**A/N:**__ Unlike before, I would like to put in a few twists with regards to pairings for this second… err… third version of Gundam SEED Reverie. Like before, this will start as a side story to GSD and may probably end up as a continuation-fanfic of GSD, which means I will make up stuff that may occur after the Destiny time-frame. This is the fanfic "Gundam SEED Reverie" rewritten for the third time. I'm abandoning my other account and canceling it once I'm done moving. XD_

_The following would be the Equatorial Union's military ranking system. Quite short though:_

High Admiral / Grand General / Navarch

Admiral / General

Vice Admiral

Rear Admiral

Colonel

Captain

Commander

Lt. Commander

Lieutenant

First Lieutenant

Second Lieutenant

- - - - - - - - - - - -

_**Gundam SEED Reverie**_

**AzureStrike – MidnightReverist - Azure.Rouge**

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Clark Airbase, Equatorial Union…

"All personnel are ordered to evacuate. I repeat, all personnel are ordered to evacuate." the PA said over and over again as sirens rang through the base. What may be a typical scene during war is currently occurring in the base. There was chaos everywhere, but not because of an attack, but because of rain… the rain of debris from the falling Junius 7.

On one particular hangar was Silve Almana, a soldier of the Equatorial Union and former Moebius pilot of the Earth Alliance Forces under training of the Hawk of Endymion, Mwu La Flaga and the only survivor, aside from Mwu, at the Battle of Endymion in which Mwu shot down five Mobile Suits. Unknown to the EAF, another one survived the battle, and was rescued by an EU medical ship. A few years later, he found himself face to face with death again, this time, not in the hands of enemies but in the form of a falling colony.

"Damn… they want us to evacuate, but there's nowhere to go to." the crimson haired soldier complained as he ran around the base looking for a means to leave the place. He first ran towards the armory, but a few hundred meters away, the armory was hit by a piece of debris and the ammunition stored inside generated a powerful explosion. Next, he rushed to the tarmac to find an aircraft to use. Most of the aircraft were already airborne. A few FX-550 Skygraspers that were left during the last war were still in the hangar and Silve took out one of them. He taxied the Skygrasper into the runway and took off, but the right wing took a major damage from the falling debris. The Skygrasper made an emergency landing next to an old hangar. As soon as Silve got out of the stricken plane, another piece of debris hit the old hangar, leaving a large hole. Silve peeked into the hole and saw one of the first suits equipped with N-Jammer Cancellers, the ZGMF-X03A Azure Strike, designated as EUMF-X03A in the Equatorial Union. Having no other option, he boarded the Azure Strike and activated it. The OS booted and the screens activated. The first thing he saw through the screens were the aircraft of his comrades that were crashing after being hit by debris, turning the scene into a sea of fire.

"If I'm going to die… I'm making sure that it's not here." he whispered to himself as the Azure Strike stood up and flew off, activating its Phase Shift Armor in mid-air. However, after a few seconds in the air, the Azure Strike plummeted back to the ground and landed on its feet.

"Thrust is too low…" he mumbled as he adjusted the settings for the Azure Strike's legs and ran off instead.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Equatorial Union Naval Base, Spratley Island, Command Center…

"Unit activation detected. Designation, EUMF-X03A." one of the personnel reported.

"EUMF-X03A…? What's the probable purpose of activation? Is it authorized?" the OIC asked.

"Activation unauthorized. Probable purpose is relocation or evacuation. We have received reports that Clark is currently suffering heavy damages from Junius 7."

"I see… so that's the reason… Very well, open Gate 02-C. Equip the STRIDE Flyer with AS-SS01A. Give order to launch as soon as the Flyer's ready."

"Roger." the operator activated the PA, "… open Gate 02-C. Prepare launch catapult. Equip STRIDE Flyer with Skies Striker Pack. Flight to Clark, ASAP."

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Equatorial Union Naval Base, Spratley Island, Cafeteria…

Unaware of the current situation that the Union was facing hundreds of kilometers away, some of the soldiers were having their 30-minute break from their daily routine when their peaceful time to relax was interrupted by a call through the PA.

"Calling 2nd Lt. Natalie Mia Halcyone, proceed to Hangar 02 for immediate mission briefing. This is a top priority. I repeat, 2nd Lt. Natalie Mia Halcyone, proceed to Hangar 02 for immediate mission briefing. This is a top priority." The PA repeated itself. Out of the entire group of soldiers in the cafeteria, a blonde, somehow tomboyish, female pilot jumped up and ran out of the cafeteria.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Equatorial Union Naval Base, Spratley Island, Hangar 02…

Less than a minute later, the tomboyish blonde arrived at Hangar 02 where she was immediately sent to the locker room to put on her flight suit. After she finished, she was briefed by the OIC behind the aircraft.

"2nd Lt. Natalie Mia Halcyone, reporting, sir." She gave a salute to the OIC.

"Carry on." The OIC returned the salute, "…I'm sure if you are aware of this but Junius 7 is currently heading for Earth. What you need to do now is to fly to Clark and deliver the Skies Striker. Upon completion, you have two options. You can either merge the Flyer with the Azure Strike or return here."

"But, sir… what will happen to this base? Isn't this base in danger of being hit by debris?"

"As a matter of fact, it is. However, the installation of a lightweight barrier system similar to the one used in Artemis was finished a few hours ago. It's fully operational and will be enough to defend this base when debris hit." The OIC cleared his throat, "…your primary mission now is to rendezvous with the Azure Strike and deliver the Skies Striker. If you choose to merge with the Azure Strike, your new mission will be to return here with the Strike. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir."

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Equatorial Union Naval Base, Spratley Island, Gate 02-C…

A few seconds after she boarded, the STRIDE Flyer was loaded into the catapult and gates behind the aircraft closed.

"STRIDE, this is Flight Control, pre-flight report please."

"FC, this is STRIDE. Systems are all green. STRIDE is ready to launch." Mia replied through the radio.

"Roger that, equipping Auxiliary Fuel Tanks." Two panels on both sides of the aircraft opened as a ceiling panel opened and lowered two fuel tanks that linked at the sides of the STRIDE. Guide lights activated on the walls and floor. Front gates opened and the catapult tilted upward, pointing to the sky.

"STRIDE Flyer, you are clear to launch."

"Right." Mia closed her helmet and leaned back on the seat, "Mia Halcyone, STRIDE Flyer, taking off!"

The Flyer was shot out of the catapult. After being released, the thrusters of the Skies Striker activated and drove the Flyer through the atmosphere at very high speeds.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Earth's Ionosphere…

The largest portion of Junius 7 was currently starting to burn up in the atmosphere. The Minerva moved closer to Junius 7 and aimed it Tannhäuser positron cannon at the falling colony. The large piece was broken into smaller bits, most of which were destroyed during atmospheric entry. Some of the larger pieces managed to get through the atmosphere and many places on Earth, including Athens, Philadelphia, Quebec, Rome and many other locations. Others that hit the ocean, mostly at the Equator, generated huge tsunamis and destroyed everything along the shorelines.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Equatorial Union Naval Base, Spratley Island, Command Center…

Just as everyone thought that the worst was over, ORB and Equatorial Union radar detected something big entering the atmosphere.

"Unidentified object detected above Indonesia. Distance, 95 kilometers. Size is estimated to be 250 meters long and With its current trajectory, it's bound to hit Manila in a matter of minutes." the operator, with a horrified expression, then shifted his gaze to the OIC.

"That's not very good…" the OIC fell back to his chair, "… give orders to both the Flyer and Azure to intercept the object as soon as unison has been achieved. Enable the remote launching of Clark's undamaged SAM. We have to make sure that the object doesn't touch the ground at all costs!"

- - - - - - - - - -

Pampanga, Equatorial Union

Aboard the Azure Strike, Silve Almana managed to get a few kilometers away from Clark when the rain of debris stopped. Silve stopped the Azure Strike on top of a dormant volcano and looked down on the ruins that was once Clark Airbase.

"That was close…" Silve sighed and let out a sigh. He almost drifted off to sleep when an incoming voice message woke him up.

"EUMF-X03A Azure Strike, as part of the Equatorial Union, you are ordered to rendezvous with the STRIDE Flyer in a matter of seconds. Unison is a top priority after rendezvous. Further orders are to come in short after unison is achieved." the message was finished.

"That's a pretty weird order to give." Silve sat up straight and checked the radar, "STRIDE, huh? I don't see anything…"

Just after he said that, a sonic boom hit the Azure Strike. Then a transmission came from the aircraft that passed.

"EUMF-X03A Azure Strike. This is the STRIDE Flyer, do you copy? Over." A female voice said on the radio.

"Roger. This is EUMF-X03A Azure Strike, I copy you loud and clear, over." Silve answered.

"Azure Strike, launch into the air please."

"What? Are you kidding? This thing can't even stay airborne!" Silve complained over the radio.

"Just do it. We don't have time for arguments!" the female voice shouted.

"What do you mean?" Silve asked, but a warning on the screen interrupted him, "What the… unidentified object? It's huge!"

"Just launch into the air. We'll proceed into unison in mid air. I'll explain the rest after we're done with that."

"Alright, fine." Silve sighed as he adjusted the thruster output and stepped on the foot panel that activated the thruster, launching the Azure Strike into the air.

"Good." the circling STRIDE Flyer headed towards the Azure Strike. Mia slammed her palm on the wall and hit the red button. The STRIDE Flyer separated from the Skies Striker pack and attached itself to the front of the Azure Strike's torso. The Skies Striker pack aligned itself with the falling Azure Strike and attached itself to the back.

"Now, try to remain airborne." Mia ordered through the Strike's integrated communications system.

"Right." Silve adjusted the thruster outputs a bit and stepped on the panel again, keeping the mobile suit airborne, "So, what about the explanation?"

"Oh, right… but first, head towards the south. That's where we'll receive our next orders."

"Whatever you say…" Silve turned and flew off.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

On the skies above Luzon…

"So, explanation please." Silve said through the intercom, voice only.

"Oh, right. Let's start with this suit. I'm sure you know that this is the EUMF-X03A Azure Strike. When using the Skies Striker pack, it becomes the Azure Skies."

"Azure Skies, huh? That's quite flashy." Silve said as he searched around the suit's MOS and saw the new equipments and their specifications.

"Well, yes. Anyway, I'll tell you about the current situation. ORB and EU radars detected a large object above Indonesia and it's heading straight for Manila."

"Indonesia? How the heck is this suit able to detect something that far away? Not to mention that the other radar systems except ORB's and EU's radars were unable to go that far!"

"Actually, this suit was built with a series of support satellites. A total of 12 are in space and one of them must have detected the large object, in turn setting off the warning in the Strike."

"I see." Silve stopped snooping around the MOS and focused on flying the Azure Skies. Then, the screen bleeped and another message came in.

"EUMF-X03A Azure Strike. Do you copy?"

"Roger." Silve replied, "…This is EUMF-X03A Azure Strike, changing callsign to Azure Skies, over."

"Copy that, Azure Skies. Here're your new orders. You are to fly to Sulu Sea and intercept the unidentified object. Skygraspers are on their way to do the initial intercepting. You will proceed with the secondary interception. Is that clear?"

"Roger. Over and out." Silve closed the line.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Equatorial Union Naval Base, Spratley Island, Command Center…

"Unidentified object, ID-ed as Bogey 1 is currently 60 kilometers above Celebes Sea. Estimated time before impact, 5 minutes." The operator read the readings on the screen.

"Very well. Begin interception. Commence the Skygrasper interception!" the commander ordered.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

At the skies above Mindanao…

Ten Skygraspers flew through the atmosphere carrying a Launcher Striker pack each, constantly ascending, getting into a collision course with the unidentified object.

"Spratley, this is Meteor Breaker 1, we have clear visual of the object." The commander of the Skygrasper Wing reported to Spratley Naval Base.

"Roger. Identification?" the operator asked.

"It's not a meteor. It's a piece of debris from a colony… Junius 7…" the commander reported.

"I see… please proceed with interception." the operator said before closing the line.

"Right. Meteor Breaker team, you know the drill." the commander's Skygrasper flew ahead, followed by the rest. At a distance of 20 kilometers away, the 10 Skygraspers flew parallel to each other forming a straight horizontal line. At a distance of 15 kilometers away, all 10 Skygraspers fired the Launcher Striker pack's high-energy beam cannon at the debris that was currently burning up at the atmosphere.

"Bull's eye!" the commander shouted as the beams hit the debris. Then, much to their surprise, the beams went around the debris and failed to scratch the debris.

"What happened?" the commander stared in astonishment.

"The air around it is super heated… probably high enough to cause the refraction of beams…" one of the pilots answered, then all their warning systems went berserk.

"What's wrong?" another pilot asked, trying to get an explanation.

"We're heading straight for the debris! Everyone, scramble!" the commander ordered. The planes flew in different directions, avoiding the debris. Three of the ten Skygraspers' wings scratched the side of the colony, unable to turn away fast enough. The speed of the super heated air around the falling colony burned through the metal on the Skygraspers, igniting the fuel and blowing them up in mid-air… one of which is the commander's aircraft, making fireworks out of the multi-million dollar fighters.

"Meteor Breaker 4, report. We just lost Meteor Breaker 1, 2 and 6 on the radar. Please confirm." the operator called.

"Operator, this is Meteor Breaker 4… we just lost them. They're gone.", and with that, the pilot cut off the communication link.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Equatorial Union Naval Base, Spratley Island, Command Center…

"Bogey 1, now identified. J7-1 is still heading for Manila. Damages aside from burn-up in re-entry is zero." The operator reported.

"I understand. Inform the Azure Skies the situation. Send them to intercept."

"Yes, sir." the operator contacted the Azure Skies, "Azure Skies, you have orders to intercept. I repeat, you have orders to intercept."

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Sulu Sea…

"Roger, Spratley. Over and out." Mia closed the channel and talked to Silve, "We have orders to intercept. You know all this thing's weapons, right?"

"Yeah… I had enough time to get through the MOS. Let's go!" Silve said, flying the Azure Skies toward the debris at speeds greater than sound.

"Distance, 19,000 meters." Mia held on to her seat.

"Right…" Silve grunted. He brought the Azure Skies to a sudden stop and aimed the 2 Xiphias 3 waist-mounted rail cannons. He fired consecutively at the debris before flying towards it again.

"Distance, 5000 meters." Mia closed the glass of her helmet.

"Here we go!" Silve shouted. The Azure Skies pulled something that resembled a handle from the STRIDE Flyer attached at the front. He then pulled out the Azure Skies' 14.20 meter long Balmung anti-ship sword and attached it to the top of the handle, with the beam edges on the inside. He took the beam swords attached to the shoulders of the Azure Skies and put them at the center, perpendicular to the Balmung. He attached a wire from the Azure Skies' back pack to the sword and activated it, forming the 37 meter long "Endymion" beam sword.

"That colony won't even touch the ground!" Silve shouted as he flew the Azure Skies directly into the debris at full speed and Endymion aimed forward. The Azure Skies collided with the debris in mid air, causing a very powerful shockwave to be released. Silve turned the thrusters beyond maximum and drove the sword deeper into the burning debris.

"Internal temperature, 146 degrees and still rising!" Mia held on to her seat.

"Don't worry! Once we get through, the hot air that will flow through the hole we made will be enough to shatter this thing into pieces!"

The Azure Skies carried on, pushing deeper into the debris. A few more seconds later, the temperature inside the cockpit rose to 200 degrees, and to Silve who wasn't even wearing a flight suit, it was unbearable. A little later, the Azure Skies pushed through, leaving a 15 meter wide hole in the debris. The hot air rushing through the hole pushed the Azure Skies at great forces, and divided the debris into 8 smaller pieces.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Equatorial Union Naval Base, Spratley Island, Command Center…

"Breakup of J7-1 confirmed. 8 smaller pieces have been detected." The operator sighed.

"Very well. Activate the remote launch sequence of Clark's remaining SAMs, prepare the fire-control."

"Done." the operator declared as a panel opened on the table in front of the OIC, revealing a large red button.

"Alright… Hopefully, this will finish the job…" the OIC hoped as he pressed the button.

And with that, all twelve clusters of Clark's remaining missiles were launched, adding up to 29 large Surface-to-Air Missiles or SAMs, destroying the remnants of the debris.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Uncharted Island, Sulu Sea…

As the missiles intercepted the chunks of Junius 7, Silve and Mia looked down at what seemed to be a beautiful destruction. After the destruction of the last piece of debris, the extreme heat and extreme G-forces have taken their toll on Silve. Silve blacked out, leaving the Azure Skies to plummet towards the ground. The STRIDE Flyer, being unable to separate from the Azure Skies due to unstable movements, crashed to the Earth with the Strike, though the machines were undamaged because of the Phase Shift Armor. A few hours later, Mia regained consciousness. She remembered what happened and hurried to the Strike's cockpit and opened it from outside, where she got her first look at the pilot's face. She stared at the pilot, who without a flight suit, suffered extreme temperatures and extreme G-forces, and survived, though heavily injured, though in minor terms, after being battered around in the cockpit.

_Glossary_

_STRIDE Flyer – STRIker DEployment Flyer_

_OIC – Officer In Charge_

_SAM – Surface to Air Missiles_


	3. Phase 02: Her name is Scarlet

Uncharted Island, Sulu Sea

"Whoever you are! Wake up!" Mia tried shaking Silve awake, but got no response from the said pilot.

"I don't think that's going to be of any use..." a female voice said, coming from outside the cockpit.

"Eh? Who are you?" Mia asked as she looked outside to take a peek at the person talking to her.

"Oh, right. I should introduce myself first... I'm Miriallia Haww." Miriallia smiled at Mia, "May I be of assistance?"

"To be honest, yes. This guy lost consciousness while flying this thing, causing us to crash... and I don't know how much injury he sustained." Mia removed the seat-belts and slowly pulled Silve out of the cockpit.

"Well, there's a small clinic a few kilometers across the sea. We can get him checked up there… Do you know how to fly that Gundam?"

"Gundam? What's that?" Mia asked, raising her eyebrow to magnify her ignorance on the term.

"Oh, sorry... Gundam… that's what my friend calls it. I'll tell the story later, but right now, we have to take him to the clinic." Mir giggled.

"Oh, right… Yeah, I guess I could fly this thing." Mia said nervously.

"That's good… your name?"

"Mia… Natalie Mia Halcyone."

"Okay, Mia. Let's go." Miriallia took Silve and got into the Flyer's cockpit, holding him tight, while Mia got into the Azure Skies' cockpit.

"Hold on." Mia said told Mir on the intercom and launched the Azure Skies towards the direction provided by Mir.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Red Cross Clinic, Palawan

"Is he going to make it?" Mia asked Mir, who just got out of the room prior to the start of Silve's treatment.

"Yes, he is. I think he suffered from a minor heatstroke and extreme G-forces... at least, that's how it looks." Mir sat down beside Mia.

"How did you know?" Mia turned her head and faced Mir.

"Two years ago, I was on the Archangel with my friends." Mir's face turned sad as memories of the past came flooding back.

"Archangel? The Earth Forces' Archangel-class warship?"

"Yes. That time, we were being attacked by the Le Creuset team. Kira fought the Duel up to the point where the re-entry began. At that time, the temperature inside the cockpit was already beyond 100 degrees. Luckily, Kira found his way back to the Archangel. Once inside, he was brought to the infirmary for a minor heatstroke and fatigue. Eventually, he got well really fast."

"So, does that mean that this guy will be safe?" Mia's concern became evident.

"I don't know. At that time, Kira was wearing his flight suit. Add to that the fact that Kira is a Coordinator." Mir answered, and after sensing Mia's concern, asked her a question, "Tell me, is he your friend?"

"Actually, no... Originally, my mission was to rendezvous with the Azure Strike and its unidentified pilot, but then the Naval Base at Spratley gave us a new order to intercept the large chunk of debris from Junius 7. When he made a hole into that thing, the Azure got caught in the debris' super heated gases. The temperature inside reached more than 200 degrees. He finally completed the hole, which led to the break up of the large chunk, but after escaping the heated area, I guess he blacked out. I had no control of the unit from my position, so we just plummeted to the ground."

"So, you only saw him after you crashed?" Mir asked.

"Yeah. That would be it."

"I see…" Mir stared at the floor. An uncomfortable moment of silence covered up the lobby, only broken by the doctor that exited Silve's room.

"Ladies… he's fine now. Don't worry." The doctor gave them both a reassuring smile.

"That's good." Mia let out a sigh of relief.

"You may see him now." The doctor walked off into another room. Mir and Mia entered the room where Silve was confined. Mir closed the door behind her and opened the curtains to let the light flood in.

"There! Isn't it better if the curtains are open?" Mir stretched her arms and let out a big yawn.

"Yeah…" Mia sat on the side of the bed.

"So, do you want to know his name?" Mir asked.

"Yup. He'll be flying with me from now on…"

"There's only one way to find out." Mir walked towards the door and started to search Silve's uniform.

"M-Miriallia? What are you doing?" Mia stood up and ran to stop Mir.

"If you want to know his name, we could always see his ID!" Mir answered while she tried keeping Mia away from her hands.

"I think I'll just ask him when he wakes up!" Mia protested, trying to pull Mir's hands from the pockets.

"Just stop fighting and let me see his ID!" Mir shouted, pulling free from Mia's grip after she got the ID, but Mia smacked her hand, causing her to drop the ID to the floor. The ID fell face up and both girls bent down and looked at the ID.

"1st Lt. Silve Almana… Equatorial Union 654th Fighter Wing…" Mia sad as she stared at the ID, _"so that's his name... Silve..."_

- - - - - - - - - - -

Equatorial Union Air Force General Headquarters, Kota Kinabalu, Command Center…

"Admiral! We've received a report from Spratley." The operator reported.

"Very well…" the Admiral rested his head on his fist, "…what does it say?"

"It says that they lost contact with the Azure Strike and the STRIDE Flyer."

"Flyer-01? And the X03A? What happened?"

"As I recall, there were two Bogeys at the Sulu Sea, Bogey 1 is confirmed by Meteor Breaker 07 to 10 as remnants of Junius 7. Apparently, Bogey 2 was Azure Skies."

"Azure Skies?"

"Yes, sir. Azure Strike uniting with the Skies Flyer, which is the STRIDE equipped with the Skies Striker."

"I see… I believe Spratley is in no position to sortie a search party for the Azure Skies, not after what happened to their nation during the fall of Junius 7."

"Very well, sir. Should I send reconnaissance aircraft?"

"No. The STRIDEs are equipped with sensor-jammers… only another STRIDE can detect them." The admiral lowered his arm on the arm rest, "Contact Singapore. Give order to launch Aether Flyer."

"Roger."

- - - - - - - - - - -

Equatorial Union Air Force Base, Sentosa, Command Center…

"Commander! We just received urgent orders from HQ… Aether Flyer is to fly to HQ immediately."

"By whose orders?" the commander irritatingly asked.

"It's a direct order from the Admiral."

"Fine! Order the Aether Flyer to launch. Call the pilot immediately. Tell him to get ready."

"Roger." The operator turned the chair and lifted a phone.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Equatorial Union Air Force Base, Sentosa, Personnel Quarters…

A black haired male was lying on his bed, almost asleep, when the phone suddenly rang, surprising him and causing him to fall of his bed. He immediately stood up and ran towards the phone.

"H-Hello?" he panted a bit after picking up the phone.

"1st Lt. Yuan Astur, proceed to the Command Center briefing room immediately. I repeat, proceed to the Command Center briefing room immediately."

- - - - - - - - - - -

Equatorial Union Armed Forces Central Headquarters, Batanes, Hangar One Viewing Area…

"So that is our first experimental warship?" a General in white uniform asked as he looked down on the warship with nothing but gray on it.

"Yes. It's the RP-BSX-01." Another General answered.

"What's with the chit-chat? We're here to see it off, aren't we?" a person in black uniform asked.

"High Admiral?" the Generals stood up and saluted.

"At ease." The High Admiral ordered. Then, another two officers in black entered the room.

"Grand General? Navarch?" the Generals saluted again.

"Carry on." The Navarch returned the salute on behalf the both of them.

"So, are the preparations done?" the Grand General asked.

"Nearly, sir. We're loading the supplies and this ship is ready for its maiden voyage." One of the Generals replied.

"That's good. As far as I know, experimental warships don't usually get their maiden voyage. The EAF's Archangel and ZAFT's Minerva both had to launch prematurely." The High Admiral commented. They were about to take their seats when the screen turned on.

"Generals, High Admiral, Grand General, Navarch. The loading of supplies is done." The soldier reported on the screen.

"Very well. Is the crew on board?" the High Admiral asked.

"Yes, sir." The soldier answered.

"Very well. You are dismissed."

"Thank you, sir." The soldier saluted and the transmission was cut.

"General, connect me to the ship's bridge." The High Admiral ordered.

"Yes, sir." The General entered things into the computer and the communications screen opened.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Equatorial Union Armed Forces Central Headquarters, Legacy's bridge…

"May I speak with the Captain please?" the High Admiral asked after the connection was completed.

"High Admiral Benthal… what a surprise." The Captain smiled.

"Now, now. What did I tell you, Cheska?" the High Admiral frowned.

"Right… father." Cheska giggled.

"Remember, your mission is to head to the Sulu Sea and assist the search party."

"Yes, High Admiral…" Cheska answered.

"Cheska…" the High Admiral's voice rose a bit.

"Err… I mean, father."

"Good." The High Admiral's smiling face became serious, "Now, RP-BSX-01 Legacy, go and find the Azure Skies."

"Roger." Cheska shifted her attention from the screen towards the ship, "Initiate launch sequence!"

With that, the ship's pilots hit the switches and a soft hum echoed throughout the ship, signalling that the ship's engines have powered up.

"Reactors, green. Thrusters, green. Flight controls, green. Communications and navigation equipments, green. APU, green. All systems are green and ready to go." The pilot on the right reported.

"Activating anti-gravity lifters. Thrusters, power-up. Closing all doors. Sealing all water-tight containers and bulkheads." The other pilot reported.

"Flooding sequence started at 5 meters per second." The Control Center said through the PA. All were silent until the Legacy was fully submerged underwater, "Opening gates."

The gates opened and lights along the walls lit up, forming a straight line of guiding light.

"Release the Restraining Arms." Cheska ordered as she buckled her seatbelt.

Outside the ship, the Restraining Arms that were holding the ship in place released, leaving the ship stationary at its distance from the walls, the floor and the ceiling.

"Engines are on stand-by. Legacy is ready to go." The pilot on the right, Lt. Commander Yohnes Austere, buckled his seatbelts, and so did the other crew members of the ship.

"All hands, prepare to launch. I repeat, all hands, prepare to launch." The pilot on the left, Lt. Commander Zeal Levanter said through the ship's PA.

"Legacy, you are ready to launch." The Control Center told the Captain through the screen.

"Roger. All engines, 10 percent output. Activate Phase Shift Armor." The Captain ordered. One of the pilots pressed a red button. The ship's gray exterior turned into red, blue and white. At the front of the ship, at the left side, a yellow sun with eight rays became visible, "Take us to the skies... Legacy, taking off!"

The thrusters gently pushed the ship forward. Slowly, the ship moved towards the first gate, then the second, and so on. In a matter of minutes, the ship was under the sea and out of the final gate.

"Engines to maximum. Ascend to 1000 meters above sea level, pitch angle 30." Cheska ordered. The two pilots put the thrusters at full power and pulled a bit on the yoke. The Legacy pointed towards the sky and started to ascend. The engine's thrust accelerated the ship until it was fast enough to shoot out of the sea and head directly into flight.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Red Cross Clinic, Palawan

After a few minutes later, things settled down at Silve's room, allowing Mia and Mir to continue their previous conversation.

"You still didn't tell me why your friend calls that thing a Gundam" Mia sat on the table.

"Oh sorry... Must have forgotten..." Mir smiled and scratched her head before continuing with the explanation, "He based it on the initials of the startup screen. It means General Unilateral Neuro-link Automatic Maneuver Synthsis System… GUNDAM Synthsis System for short, but he preferred the term Gundam."

"So that's why…" Mia thought about it for a while.

Meanwhile, a nurse knocked on the door.

"Excuse me…" the nurse slowly opened the door.

"Come in." Mir thought about something, "_Her voice sounds familiar…"_

The nurse walked in, with her red hair neatly tied behind her head.

"I'm here for the hourly check." The nurse smiled at Mir and proceeded to check the charts hanging at the end of the bed. Mir's jaw dropped and she stood speechless for a few seconds.

"F-Fllay? Fllay Alster?" Miriallia stared at the nurse, without even blinking.

"I'm sorry. I don't know Fllay Alster.. nor am I Fllay Alster. I'm Scarlet Aeternam. And you are?" Scarlet smiled at her again. Mir was speechless again, until she shook it off and managed to respond.

"M-Miriallia. Miriallia Haww." She extended her hand to Scarlet and Scarlet took it and shook hands with her, "_She's right… she's definitely not Fllay. She's too good to be Fllay… and Fllay's already dead. Almost two years ago..."_

- - - - - - - - - - -

**A/N:** _Well, this is Phase 02. If I can remember correctly, this is the previous version's Phase 03. I've fixed a few grammatical errors from last time and expanded the conversations a bit, but it remains the generally the same. As the story goes, I may make a change or two in the story line,but for now, the only major changes that I've put are those for the pairings._


	4. Phase 03: Blue Skies, White Lightning

September 27, C.E. 71… Battle of Jachin Due…

The Dominion was taken down by its sister-ship a one-on-one duel that warships weren't supposed to do. The Archangel could've been hit by its Lohengrinn Positron cannon, but a heavily damaged Strike and its pilot did the impossible, blocking its beam and saving the Archangel. The Archangel Captain's response came in the form of another beam from a Lohengrinn, but without someone who could make the impossible possible on their side to block the beams, the bridge took a direct hit, causing the demise of the Dominion, taking with it Muruta Azrael and Natarle Badgiruel, the Archangel's former Deputy Captain. Except for them, the rest of the crew managed to escape via shuttles towards the Archangel. One of them, however, got caught up in the battle that was being fought by the ZGMF-X13A Providence and the ZGMF-X10A Freedom. The shuttle was shot by one of the DRAGOONs from the Providence, but the Freedom blocked the beam with its shield, saving Fllay from an untimely death. Unfortunately for the Ultimate Coordinator, another beam from a different direction was fired, hitting the shuttle at dead center and destroying it. Immediately after that, Kira Yamato proceeded and resumed his battle with Rau Le Creuset. The rest of the shuttles were almost at the Archangel, but one of them immediately turned around and headed for the destroyed shuttle.

"What on Earth are you doing? We have to go to the Archangel!" one of the passengers complained.

"I suggest that you sit down! We are going to that shuttle and find any survivors!" the pilot shouted as he steered the shuttle towards the destroyed shuttle.

"Are you insane? No one could survive that explosion! If anyone did, they'll die immediately from lack of air!" another passenger shouted.

"But by going there immediately after it exploded, we may find someone who's still in the process of dying! If we get there soon enough, we may have the chance to treat them!" the pilot shouted again.

"We don't have equipment here! Survivors will just end up dead!"

"At least we tried! This is the only way to pay those we could save!" the pilot stopped the craft and immediately put on a space suit.

Outside the shuttle, the pilot and a few other people searched through the debris. The ill-fated shuttle's pilots were blown into pieces, therefore there was no chance that they were alive. Then the members of the rescue shuttle found someone with a faint signs of life. Although heavily wounded, suffered from third degree burns and possibly massive internal bleeding, the person was still twitching a bit. Deciding that it may be better if they tried to save that particular person, they carried her to the shuttle. Inside, they gave her oxygen, treated her wounds and covered her burns. After being dead for two minutes, a very weak pulse was detected. Not enough to ensure that she'll be fine, but proof enough that she was alive. Just as they were rejoicing and the pilot was preparing to head for the Archangel, a stray beam from the battling mobile suits almost hit them when a white mobile suit, GAT-X104 Blitz, which can considerably be the older brother of the GAT-X207 Blitz, appeared out of nowhere and dragged the shuttle towards a nearby medical ship

A few minutes later at the medical ship, the passengers and crew of the escape shuttle were in the dining area while Fllay was still being treated. A few minutes later, a nurse entered the Emergency Room and one went out.

"Hey! Where are you going? Isn't there still an operation going in there?"

"Yes, but the doctor ordered me to rest, I will be needed in another as soon as this one finished." The nurse leaned on the wall.

"But… how is it possible to conduct an operation with no gravity? Won't be there too many floating matter?"

"Don't worry. There's a constantly working vacuum inside the operating room. In the event that the patient loses too much blood, we have a lot in stock, all blood types."

"What about the patient? Will she survive?" the pilot stood up and asked.

"You're early rescue contributed to her surviving until now, but exposure to space can do more than physical damages. There are always those unseen problems that the doctors are looking out for. Right now, she's at critical condition. There's a 95 percent chance that she'll die… but the doctor said that if she'll end up dead anyway, we might as well try to save her."

"Thanks…" the pilot sighed and smiled.

"No problem. After all, we're Equatorial Union's Elite Medical Wing! Even if there's only a slight chance of survival, we'll take that chance!" the nurse looked at his watch, "Damn! That EAF pilot needs to take his medicine! It's the second time that we rescued him!"

"Second time?" the pilot looked at the nurse with curiosity.

"Yeah… the first time we found him, he was at the Endymion Crater where the Hawk of Endymion got his name. And now, he just took on the Providence with a Strike Dagger… I don't know if he's stupid or brave."

- - - - - - - - - - -

Approximately 2 years later, Red Cross Clinic, Palawan…

"Ouch…" Silve grunted as he struggled to get up, but was forcefully pushed down after he reached halfway.

"Patients should stay in bed!" the nurse, a.k.a. Scarlet, scolded him.

"Fine. I'll do it." Silve relaxed on the bed, then stared at Scarlet's face _"That's odd… I'm pretty sure I met this person somewhere before…"_

"Umm…" Scarlet blushed after she noticed that Silve was staring at her, "Why are you staring?"

"Oh…" Silve blinked, "Aren't you a crew member of the Dominion?"

"Dominion?" Scarlet stared back at the crimson-haired pilot.

"Yeah… I just regained my consciousness on the Equatorial Union's Gabriel when I heard that a shuttle from the Dominion just came in."

"You could've just mistaken me from someone else." Scarlet put a hand on her head as a slight headache hit her.

"Believe me… one thing I'm good at is recognizing people." Silve smiled, "and as far as I know, you are that person… the sole survivor of an exploded shuttle."

"That's not me!" Scarlet screamed as her headache became worse. She ran out of the door and bumped into Miriallia who was on her way in.

"Ouch." Mir flinched.

"Sorry!" Scarlet shouted to Mir as she got further away.

Mir just sighed and walked into Silve's room.

"Eh? Who are you?" Silve blinked twice while staring at Mir.

"Oh… Sorry. I'm Miriallia. You're Silve, right?" Mir smiled at Silve

"Miriallia… how did you know my name?"

"Well, I got curious and I looked at your ID. Actually, me and Mia."

"Mia? Who is she?" Silve sat up slowly.

"She said she's 2nd Lt. Mia Halcyone… she's the pilot of that thing attached to your Mobile Suit." Mir walked towards the side of the bed and sat down.

"Oh… so she piloted the Flyer…" Silve said as he looked outside the window, staring at the sunset. Mia also came into the room at that exact moment.

"So, you're awake." Mia greeted Silve.

"Umm… Yeah, guess so." Silve said while keeping his glance at the same direction.

"So, how do you feel, Silve?" Mia sat down on the other side of the bed which was closer to the window.

"Fine, Mia. Just fine." Silve smiled at Mia, who was left speechless at Silve's reply.

"Uhh… How did you know my name?"

"Miriallia told me." Silve grinned, "…and it's no surprise since you already know my name… I guess it's proper for me to do the same for you."

"Alright, but how did you know that I'm Mia?"

"Simple. The only ones that would enter this room would be the doctor, the nurse, the person that brought me here, and the Flyer's pilot. Since I already saw the nurse, that's not you. You're not the doctor either… plus it was Mir that helped bring me here, so I thought that you were the Flyer's pilot."

"Oh really? I guess we don't really need introductions now, do we?"

"Nope, I guess not." Silve shrugged his shoulders, but kept them there for a time, grunting while keeping a grin plastered on his face, "Yeowch."

- - - - - - - - - - -

Sulu Sea, Legacy's bridge

"I thought the search party would be here before us…" Cheska sighed and turned to one of the bridge crew, "Anything on radar?"

"No, ma'am. If I remember correctly, STRIDE Flyers are equipped with Sensor Jammers. They're only visible to another STRIDE Flyer Unit. If we want to find it, all we can do is use visual search. Instrumental search won't work."

"I understand… but why do you know so much about the STRIDE Flyer?" the Captain's curiosity got sparked.

"Before I was assigned to Central, I worked as an Avionics Technician in Sentosa. I was put in charge of developing that Sensor Jammer… so you may say that I practically made that Jammer." He grinned with pride.

"That's good to hear…" Cheska sighed and was about to continue when a communications screen turned on and interrupted her.

"Colonel Cheska Benthal, Captain of the Legacy? This is 1st Lt. Yuan Astur, requesting permission to board your ship." The face on the screen said as the Aether Flyer flew past the bridge and turned around.

"Is that…?" Cheska stood up from her chair seat.

"Yup. Aether Flyer, the STRIDE Flyer equipped with Aether Striker." the CIC operator answered.

"Thanks for the info, Lt. Commander Austere." Cheska replied, making the Jammer-maker shrug his shoulders and return to his work.

"Umm… so, may I come in or what?" the Lieutenant interrupted as he went for another go-around.

"Sorry… Alright! Open Center-Rear gate!" Cheska ordered.

The Center-Rear gate, which was facing forward and directly underneath the bridge, opened upwards.

"Aether Flyer, you are clear for landing." The Legacy's traffic controller signaled.

Immediately after receiving the clearance, the Aether Flyer flew quite a distance ahead of the Legacy, then turned around, aligning itself with the Legacy's 'landing strip' and center-line. A hundred meters ahead of the Legacy, Aether Flyer opened all flaps and deployed the airbrakes. A few meters before the 'landing strip', Yuan shut down all engines and deployed the landing gear. With high enough air resistance, powerful brakes and no thrust, the Aether Flyer stopped dead on its tracks 25 meters away from the gate. Prior to stopping, Yuan reactivated the main engine and used minimal thrust to move into the gate. After entering, the gate closed behind him and he got off the Flyer and headed for the bridge.

A few moments later, at the bridge…

"So you're saying that the STRIDE Flyer's sensors don't have a long range capability? Cheska asked its maker.

"Nope. Losing the range effectivity of the sensors is a price to pay for the Sensor Jammers. Think of it as 'blocking your own transmission'. It's actually a miracle that the guys in Malaysia were able to make the output strong enough to transmit for a 1-kilometer radius."

"So now you're saying that in order for the Flyer to search for the Azure Skies, we need a more powerful sensor to be equipped with the Flyer's Sensor Jammer?" Cheska raised an eyebrow.

"That. I believe, is what he wants to say." Yuan interrupted.

"Well, we can't definitely use this ship's main sensors, if its range decreases by the slightest bit, it will put us in a disadvantage in the event we enter battle." Austere pulled out a lollipop from his pocket and put it in his mouth.

"There's always scrap." Cheska turned her seat to face the rear portion of the bridge.

"Scrap, Captain?" the pilot, who was eavesdropping decided to cut-in.

"Yes, Lt. Commander Levanter." The Captain sighed, "we have enough spare parts to produce 10 more sensory equipment. We'll build one and equip it with the Flyer's Sensor Jammers."

"That's a sound plan… however, we'll have to put it at a place at least 50 meters away from any sensor." Austere crossed his arms.

"Why is that?" Cheska raised an eyebrow.

"As popularly used, jammers nullify any incoming signals that it's supposed to nullify. This Sensor Jammer has another drawback. It renders all sensors useless within a 25 meter radius. That means we can't put it near any sensor when it's active. The only reason that the Flyers can detect each other is because they use a different wave carrier."

"What do you mean? All equipments use radio waves as carriers." Levanter replied.

"In common situations, yes. But in the Flyers, they use light waves as carriers, so don't be surprised to see a faint reddish glow around a Flyer when they transmit."

"That makes sense. Jamming all other wavelengths except for light waves and using light waves to transmit… no sound, no infrared signature, no radar signature… it sounds ridiculous and impossible, but now that I've seen it, I'll say it's a work of a genius!" Levanter applauded.

"Oh well…" Austere shrugged his shoulders.

- - - - - - - - - -

Red Cross Clinic, Palawan

After a few more minutes, the doctor came in and checked Silve.

"You're quite a fast healer… any normal person would've taken days to recover. I'm surprised you got up after a few hours." The doctor checked his list.

"Let's just say I'm stubborn…" Silve stared hard into the doctor's face, "say… do I know you?"

"What do you mean?" the doctor raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah… I think I've seen you before… weren't you the pilot of that white Blitz?"

"Oh… wait…" the doctor thought hard, "so, you're the pilot that took on the Providence with a Dagger?"

"Umm… embarrassing as it may be, but yes, that was me."

"Now I remember… no wonder I thought you looked familiar. Looks like this is the third time that I had to treat you." The doctor crossed his arms, "I don't know if you're just brave or plain stupid… Maybe you're both."

"Well, I guess so…" Silve sighed.

"Just relax for now…" the doctor patted him and turned, "oh… and be careful next time." And with that, the doctor left.

"I will…" Silve whispered.

Then, Mia entered the room, seeing that the doctor already left.

"So, how are you feeling now?" Mia sat next to Silve.

"Better… but somehow, still woozy every now and then." Silve replied as he fell back to bed, grunting once again, "…ouch."

"At least, you're improving." Mia reassured.

Meanwhile, at the clinic's storage room, Scarlet was searching for Silve's medicine. A few rustles were heard which caught Scarlet's attention. Suddenly, an EAF soldier appeared behind her and pricked her at the neck with a sedative-loaded needle. Scarlet blacked out and fell into the arms of the EAF soldier. He opened the delivery door and ran off with Scarlet. After a few minutes, the doctor entered the storage room, looking for Scarlet, but after calling her name for more than 20 times and getting no response, he went to the rear portion of the room and saw the delivery door was left opened. Fearing the worse, he opened the doors to secret basement located 100 meters away from the clinic. He hit the switch and turned on the lights, revealing the Blitz, without it's Phase Shift Armor. He immediately changed into his dark green flight suit and jumped into the cockpit. Not willing on waiting for the doors to open, he used the Blitz's sword and cut a hole, heading towards an uncertain direction.

Back at the patient's room, Silve looked out the window and noticed the Blitz fly into the horizon, riding a sub-flight lifter.

"Mia, let's go. Where's the Azure Skies?" Silve asked as he stood up, ignoring the pain.

"What do you mean? You have to rest!" Mia insisted.

"No! I just saw the Blitz take off! That means something serious has taken place and he needed to interfere. I need to help him!"

"Just rest!" Mia insisted, rather forcefully.

"Listen, Mia… he helped me three times. This is one of the few chances that I may be able to repay him… please, let's go." Silve pleaded.

"Alright. But take the flight suit. It's at the external compartment of the Skies Striker."

"Sure."

And with that they ran off, and Silve took his stuff, into another underground hangar. They put on their flight suits and got into the cockpits that were technically attached to each other.

"Where are you going?" a voice on the radio asked.

"That's not important now. We have to leave." Mia answered the transmission.

"Here we go. Silve Almana, take me to the skies Azure Skies!" he flew the mobile suit right through the roof, as it was made of aluminum foil. He faced the direction of Blitz's flight and followed it.

- - - - - - - - - - -

**A/N: **_Another chapter uploaded… Pace is quite slow since I'm busy and both of my PCs are totaled. It may take months before I get a new one. For now, I guess I should upload whenever I can… And that happens every month or two. So far, there's nothing new here, but you guys will see it in a few chapters (if I get lucky, you'll see it by next chapter). But 'til then… See ya!_


	5. Phase 04: Legacy's Flight

Sulu Sea, Legacy's bridge…

"Captain! We've finished installing the backup sensory equipment on the STRIDE Flyer." One of the crewmembers reported on the screen.

"Very well. Move the Flyer to the Center-Front launch catapult." The Captain ordered.

"To the launcher? But ma'am…" the crewmember tried to protest.

"Just do it." Cheska ordered before shutting down the communications line.

"Captain… are you sure that was a good thing? Using the Flyer as a sensory mount?" Levanter asked while slowly flying the ship around the Sulu Sea.

"It's Austere's fault. He designed it in a way that the equipment will be destroyed if removal was attempted." Cheska glared at Austere.

"What?" Austere blinked thrice before talking again, "It's a security feature! But still…" Austere cupped his chin and sat back on his seat, "Putting the Flyer in the Center-Front launcher, don't you think it will affect the mobile suits during launch?"

"Whoever said that we'll keep it activated? We'll only use it whenever the other Flyer is airborne." Cheska paused for a bit, "and besides, a 25 meter radius won't be enough… the rest of the ship will still be visible to enemy sensors and radar…"

"I guess you're right." Austere sighed.

Then, the communication link turned on again.

"Ma'am, we've moved the Flyer as you ordered. The other crewmembers are securing it in place. The cable link used during launching has been attached and modified to provide the Flyer with enough power. This will also enable us to receive data from its sensors since it uses an average of 60 Hz on the wires. As Lt. Commander Austere told us, it was 40 Hz below the Jammer's jamming capability."

"Very well. After you're done, you may take a break."

"Yes, Captain." The soldier saluted and closed the link. Cheska sighed and eased up on her seat. Just then, the bridge alarm rang and red lights flashed all over the place.

"Captain! Mobile suit signature detected! Checking library…" the CIC paused for a bit while searching for data, "It's the GAT-X104!"

"What? GAT-X104? Isn't that the older version of the GAT-X207?" Cheska's fist tightened.

"Yes. I believe it's also called Blitz… but I believe that this one is white." Levanter reported.

"How do you know so much?" Cheska questioned the pilot.

"I worked in Morgenroete before I entered the military almost three years ago. Although the X104 Blitz was not stealthy as the X207 Blitz, it gave us the test bed for further developing its systems, which in turn led to the development of the X207 Blitz."

"So, does that mean that this Blitz is not stealth-capable?"

"Initially, it was supposed to be stealthy, but when the development was at its infancy, we tried using the IRAM, or Improved Radar Absorbing Material. Ironically, the Phase Shift would turn white no matter what we do. That was the first problem. Our second problem was the MOS. By the time that the G-weapons were stolen from Heliopolis, the MOS was still in the development stage."

"With that, I guess it's safe to assume that the X104's pilot is a coordinator?"

"Possibly… or he could've gotten a copy of the Natural's MOS at Morgenroete. After all, it's under the service of the Red Cross."

"I see…" Cheska turned her attention to Austere, "Is it armed?"

"According to data, it's armed with exactly the same armaments of the X207. All its weapons seem to be operational." Austere replied.

"Very well. Turn on the new sensor. We'll look for the Azure Skies while following the X104." Cheska shouted.

"Is that a good idea? Chase after a Mobile Suit?" Levanter hesitatingly asked.

"We're in territorial waters. The suit may belong to the Red Cross, but its pilot may not." Cheska sat up straight on her seat, "All hands, Code Yellow!"

"All hands, Code Yellow! I repeat, all hands, Code Yellow!" the pilot informed the crew through the PA.

"Flyer's Sensors are activated. Another Mobile Suit detected, it's tailing the Blitz!" Austere reported.

"Identification?" Cheska asked.

"It only appeared after we turned on the sensors… It's EUMF-X03A." Austere smiled as he fell back on his seat.

"Azure Skies? Follow it. We have to see where those two are suits are going." Cheska ordered, opening a panel on her seat which resembled a laptop.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Meanwhile, 50 kilometers away from the oceanic borders of the Equatorial Union, a GAT-04 Windam landed on an EAF naval carrier. After the Windam was brought inside, the EAF pilot came in carrying a red-haired girl in his arms.

"Colonel Neo Roanoke?" the pilot asked the masked commander.

"Yes, First Lieutenant?" Neo walked closer to the pilot.

"Here's the girl you asked for." The pilot handed the girl to Neo.

"Well done, First Lieutenant Ayden Solano… or should I say Lieutenant Ayden Solano." Neo smiled at the young pilot.

"Lieutenant, sir?" Ayden asked, unsure of what he heard.

"Yes, Lieutenant. I filed a request to HQ that if you succeed in this mission, you will be promoted. They accepted the request, and you're promoted."

"Thank you, sir!" Ayden saluted while smiling. Neo returned the salute and turned around, but was stopped by Ayden, "Colonel, what's so special with that girl?"

"Her? Let's just say I have something in mind for her… We already have Stellar, Auel and Sting, but they said we needed to make her one of them. You know what I mean, right?" Neo looked at Ayden, _"Yes, I have something for her… But why her? I'm quite certain I haven't met her before… Regardless of that, I'm quite sure she'll be useful against something…" _he paused for a bit as a dark image of a white Mobile Suit with blue wings appeared in his mind, with its golden eyes glaring at him, _"…Freedom."_

"Extendeds… am I right?" Ayden asked with a serious face.

"Right… though normal Extendeds undergo their training since childhood… I'm not even sure how they will make her one." Neo gave Ayden a serious face, "Do you know what the SOP for dealing with people outside the operation that know about Extendeds?"

"Umm… no, sir." Ayden's fingers twitched in nervousness.

"It's death…" Neo lowered his face and gave Ayden a threatening smirk. Ayden took a few steps backward, thinking that the Colonel will kill him, but Neo suddenly smiled, "…but then again, on this ship, I'm the ultimate authority. Everything I say is unquestioned, so let's disregard that SOP."

Neo walked away carrying Scarlet. Ayden fell on his knees and sighed.

"_Freedom? Is that the name of the Mobile Suit I saw in my mind? If so, why can't I remember it? The mere mention of its name gives me the feeling that I lost something very important… or someone…" _Neo thought, but shrugged it off as soon as he heard a door close behind him.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Almost an hour later, Leyte waterfront…

"Silve, heat source detected at 6 o'clock." Mia said through the internal radio.

"I understand. Can you identify it?" Silve asked.

"It's hard. With the Flyer's Sensor Jammers, the Azure Strike's range is cut in half. That heat source is at the edge of the range. We can only detect a small part of it."

"I see. They seem to be trailing us… but we'll have to settle that later. Right now, we have to follow that Blitz." Silve gritted his teeth and pushed the throttle a bit more, making sure they stay away from the Blitz's visual range.

"As you wish, Silve." Mia grinned, though she was quite sure their communication was purely audio.

And with that, the Azure Skies slowly accelerated, cutting the distance between them and the Blitz.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Pacific Ocean, aboard the EAF naval carrier…

"Heat signature detected, sir! Identified as Earth Forces GAT-X104 Blitz!"

"Blitz?" Neo stared into blank space for a while, _"Blitz… X207…"_

"Colonel?" one of the bridge-crew shook Neo awake.

"Oh." Neo's thoughts went back to reality, "…sorry. I think I just drifted off… you were saying?"

"Blitz has crossed the 20 nautical miles mark. Should we intercept?"

"Yes. Launch the Windams."

"Yes sir!"

"_Where did I get that? This one's X104… I don't even know if X207 exists…" _Neo thought

- - - - - - - - - - -

Pacific Ocean, outside the Equatorial Union's oceanic borders…

The alarms rang on board the Blitz. In front of the white Blitz were 6 Windams, all heading towards its direction.

"Hmph… looks like I found them." The doctor-turned-pilot smirked as he activated the Blitz' beam saber mounted on the Trikeros shield system.

The Blitz flew directly into one of the Windams and delivered a horizontal slash, cutting off its legs. The Windam however, pulled out its beam saber. The Blitz was able to move to the left side fast enough to dodge the beam sword, getting the tip of its shoulder armor cut instead. The Blitz immediately turned around and countered by cutting the head and torso in half. The Windam exploded and fell to the sea like a piece of rock. Another Windam flew in to attack the Blitz, but it the Blitz aimed its Trikeros at the Windam's cockpit and fired a singe Lancer Dart missile, piercing the armor and cutting the pilot, before the missile exploded within the cockpit and blowing the Windam to bits.

"Two down, four to go!" the Blitz pilot shouted as another 2 Windams came charging at him.

He aimed the Gleipnir rocket anchor and grabbed one of the Windams. He then swung the Gleipnir, sending the Windam into a collision with the other. After the two Windams hit each other, the Blitz shot at it with its rifle, destroying both Windams. The fifth Windam moved further away and started firing at the Blitz. The Blitz aimed at the Windam with its rifle, but the other Windam flew up from below, slashing off the Blitz' Gleipnir. While the Windam was turning around for another attack, the Blitz shot right below the cockpit, destroying the Mobile Suit. The Blitz turned around and another one was charging at it, with beam saber in hand. The Blitz charged at it as well, with the beam saber deployed. The two beam sabers clashed in mid-air, with sparks flying off in different directions. The Blitz and Windam struggled to gain control, and as the Blitz was winning, the Windam launched its Stiletto, hitting the Blitz at the part where the arm and the body connected. The already damaged arm was completely cut off. With a sudden change of direction, the Blitz' beam saber cut the Windam's cockpit in a downward motion, in contrast to its forward push in its struggle against the Windam. The sliced Windam exploded and joined the five others that were already swimming with the fishes.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Pacific Ocean, EAF naval carrier…

"Colonel! Requesting permission to launch!" Ayden said, talking from his Windam.

"Lieutenant, get off. That's an order." Neo said from outside the Windam's cockpit.

"But Colonel…!" Ayden insisted, but the cockpit was opened from the outside and Neo forcefully pulled him out, throwing him into the maintenance elevator.

"Sorry about that kid, but I can't have you killed right after you got promoted. In a normal situation, I would've launched Abyss since we're at the ocean, but since we arrived here from space a less than two hours ago, I don't think that those three are prepared."

"But…" Ayden tried to reason, but Neo slowly moved the elevator away and walked the Windam towards the gate.

"Open the gate… I'm going out." The side-gate opened and the Windam walked out before Neo launched, "Neo Roanoke… I'm heading out."

- - - - - - - - - - -

Pacific Ocean, outside the EAF naval carrier…

Neo's Windam flew up towards the Blitz, while firing shots at it. The Blitz evaded a few of the shots, but the rest connected, hitting the remaining arm, the head, the right leg and the Sub-Flight lifter. All the hit areas exploded and the cockpit of the Blitz fell to the ocean. Intent on finishing what he started, Neo flew in a straight line, directly in front of the falling Blitz cockpit. With beam saber prepared, he was about to slice the cockpit in half when he got a Newtype-flash, sensing another Newtype in the area. He immediately turned the Windam 40 degrees to the left and saw the Azure Skies.

"What the… the sensors didn't detect anything…" Neo piloted his Windam towards the Azure Skies. The white Blitz, or what's left of it, eventually crashed towards the sea. The pilot immediately opened the cockpit and floated around in the water.

Above him, the Azure Skies was hovering in mid-air as the Windam charged in. Silve pulled out one of the two Balmung anti-ship sword and waited for the Windam to get within range. When the Windam slashed, the Azure Skies divided, and the Azure Strike cut off the Windam's right arm. The Windam was about to pull out the second beam saber when the Skies Flyer fired its vulcans at the arm, resulting to damage in the wirings and motion systems.

"Damn. That's sneaky." Neo gritted his teeth before turning around and heading off towards the carrier. The Skies Flyer, on the other hand, swooped down on the falling Azure Strike and merged again.

"Should we chase after him?" Mia asked.

"No. Our top priority is to help the doctor." Silve said as he lowered the Azure Skies to the water, partially submerging it a few meters away from the Blitz pilot. The doctor-turned-pilot swam towards the Azure Skies and climbed on the shoulders.

"Doc… are you alright?" the Azure Skies turned its head towards the doctor.

"I'm alright… and for the first time, it's you that rescued me, Silve." The doctor laughed a bit.

"Gee… thanks, Doctor Amalfi." Silve's slight laughing could be heard through the Azure Skies' external speakers, "So, doc… should we go after them? Their ship's getting away."

"If I should decide, I'll say yes… but our presence may endanger the life of Scarlet."

"Scarlet? You mean that's the reason why she's missing? She's been kidnapped?"

"Not exactly kidnapped… more like abducted." Amalfi hit the side of the Azure's head with the bottom if his fist.

"What are they going to do to her?" Mia joined the conversation.

"I'm not sure… but I think it has something to do with the biological CPUs." Amalfi sat down on the Azure's shoulder and removed his helmet, letting the wind blow his long green hair.

"Biological CPUs?"

"Yes. To be more precise, human CPUs. By the end of the Bloody Valentine War, there were three confirmed biological CPUs. They were Orga Sabnack, Shani Andras and Crot Buer."

"How did you know that? Weren't you at the Gabriel?" Silve asked.

"In case you forgot, let me remind you. We took in a shuttle from the Dominion. One of the crewmembers said that there were three on board the Dominion."

"Oh… right." Silve innocently chuckled.

"In any case, let's get back to the clinic. We have to inform the Equatorial Union what the Earth Forces did within their territory."

"I'm afraid that won't be necessary." Mia interrupted. A few hundred meters away from them, a submerged Legacy shot out of the water and slowly floated towards them.

"Attention, Azure Skies…" Cheska's voice was heard through the Azure's radio, "…This is the Equatorial Union Luna-class warship Legacy. I'm the Captain, Colonel Cheska Benthal. You are requested… no… You are _ordered _ to board immediately."

"Legacy?" Silve asked.

"Yes. Please board now. As you know, we are a long distance away from our territorial waters, so if you want to go swimming in a Mobile Suit, you might as well do it inside the Union's borders."

"Uhh… right." Silve turned his attention to the doctor and talked to him through the external speakers, "Please hold on tight, doc."

"Roger." The doctor grabbed into one of the Azure's equipment slots.

The Azure Skies jumped out of the water and landed on the Legacy's landing strip. Upon getting down, they were greeted by the Captain.

"Welcome aboard." Cheska smiled at them.

"1st Lt. Silve Almana, at your service ma'am." Silve saluted.

"2nd Lt. Natalie Mia Halcyone. Likewise, ma'am." Mia saluted as well.

"And I'm Nicholas Amalfi" the doctor grinned.

"Amalfi? I'm Colonel Cheska Benthal, Captain of this ship." Cheska returned the salute.

"If you don't mind me speaking, why were we called here?" Silve asked.

"Well, you do need a ship to return to, right?" Cheska looked back at the two pilots.

"You got us there." Silve answered as he followed Cheska. Mia followed suit.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Equatorial Union Administrative Palace, Brunei…

"Sir, the report from Spratley just arrived." A soldier saluted and then he put a pile of thin pile of paper on the desk.

"Right. You may leave." The man sitting at the desk said.

"Sir!" the soldier saluted before leaving the room. After the soldier saluted, the man at the desk, President of the Equatorial Union, flipped through the pages of the file. While busy browsing, an officer entered the room and saluted.

"Mr. President." The officer saluted. The President nodded, signaling the officer to stand-down.

"How accurate is this information?" the president pointed at the paper by hitting it slightly, "You're the one that made this report. Do you mind explaining?"

"No sir." The officer said, "As you know, I am Base Commander of Spratley."

"I know that." The President gave him a glare.

"Right." The officer messed up his already messy blond hair, "Apparently, rogue soldiers from ZAFT have sent Junius 7 towards Earth. The team that was sent to destroy the colony was attacked and most of them got destroyed. By the time Minerva arrived and helped in the colony breaking, an unidentified warship that uses Mirage Colloid appeared. It's reported that they deployed the three prototype Mobile Suits from Armory One. The units are ZGMF-X88S Gaia, ZGMF-X24S Chaos and ZGMF-X31S Abyss."

"Is that all?" the President crossed his arms.

"No." the officer immediately replied, "It has been confirmed that Minerva has succeeded in breaking up the remains of Junius 7 into several smaller fragments. However, those smaller fragments were still big enough to cause damages to places such as Rome."

"I see… but from what I've seen so far, the only damages to the Equatorial Union are in Vietnam, Indonesia and at the Philippines. Most of which are minor, except for Clark."

"I believe that's the case, Mr. President."

"Alright… That's not good."

"What's not good?" the officer asked, forgetting for a small period of time that he was talking to the President.

"The loss of Clark. I'm not sure if you're aware of this… but we have the weakest military force here on Earth. When we lost Clark, we lost a large part of our military."

"I understand."

"Aside from our bases in Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines, we are virtually undefended. Do you get what I'm saying?"

"Yes, sir." The officer looked down in dismay.

"But that's not our primary concern right now. We need to attend to the victims of the colony drop. I will be addressing the entire Union in a matter of hours. In the meantime, launch the Gabriel, Raphael and Michael. Send one Medical Ship to each country affected by the drop within the Union."

"Understood." The officer saluted and left. The President sighed and leaned back on his chair.

- - - - - - - - - -

Equatorial Union Administrative Palace, Brunei…

The President was sitting on his chair preparing to address the Union about the drop of Junius 7 when the phone suddenly rang. The President lifted the phone and answered the phone.

"What is it?" the President asked.

"Sir, you have a phone call from Eurasia." His Secretary said from the other side of the line.

"Eurasia? What do they want?" his voice remained the same, though his facial expression said that he was expecting something bad… REALLY bad.

"They have a proposition. They would like to speak to you about it. Would you like me to put it through or should I disconnect them?"

"Put them through. I'll have to see what this is. If we disconnect them, they may think of it as a sign of disrespect, and in a worst case scenario, they will definitely attack us."

"How can you be sure, sir?"

"Remember ORB during the Bloody Valentine War. They were attacked because they rejected the Alliance's offer. Though we may not have the forces to be a threat to them, we have resources that those guys want. If they capture the Union, they will be able to build a lot of newer Mobile Suits. We may be financially low, but our technology is just as high, if not higher, than Morgenroete. You get the picture?"

"I understand, sir. I'll put them through." The Secretary cut the call and put the call from Eurasia through.

"Mr. President?" the voice from the Eurasian side of the call said, somehow sounding impish.

"What do you want?" the President's voice rose.

"Simple. We want you to cooperate with the Alliance. Provide us with resources and we provide you with protection."

"I believe we can handle that ourselves. Though our forces may be outdated, our pilots are the best, they have the highest caliber in skills, some of them exceeding the skills of the late Hawk of Endymion."

"What? With Skygraspers and outdated fighters? Are you insane?" the Eurasian caller replied, obviously aiming to mock the President.

"In the previous war, all we needed were aircraft carriers and fighters to drive the Alliance out of our land. It's proof that we're capable of standing on our own feet!" the President couldn't stop himself and shouted through the phone.

"Now now, Mr. President… I understand how you feel, but with those new units from ZAFT, how are you supposed to defend yourselves? And besides, I heard that you just lost Clark. With that in mind, do you still believe that the Equatorial Union can defend itself in the event that ZAFT attacks?"

"…" the President clenched his fist and punched the wall.

"We'll provide you with financial and military support in exchange for your technology. Is that fair enough?"

"I… I'll think about it. Please give me time." The President half-heartedly said.

"Very well, Mr. President. Think about it, then contact me if you have your answer." Then the 'busy' tone repeated itself on the phone. The President lowered the phone and threw it at the door, smashing it to bits. He closed his eyes and sighed. He rubbed his temples and opened his eyes, revealing blurry blue eyes of a SEED bearer. He stood up and opened the door and went out towards the Conference room, slamming the door behind him, and unknown to him, destroying it in the process.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Equatorial Union Territorial Waters, Pacific Ocean, Legacy's Bridge…

The two pilots and the doctor entered the bridge after being called by the Captain.

"Yes, Captain?" Mia politely asked.

"Do you know why I called you here?"

"To be quite frank, no." Nicholas scratched his head.

"Well, we'll be on our way to Palawan in a few moments" the Captain stood up and faced them.

"I see… how long will it take?" Nicholas asked.

"An hour, maximum… that is, if we go at full speed." Cheska answered.

"I see…" Nicholas said as the Legacy entered land.

"Captain! The President's broadcast is beginning." Levanter alerted the Captain.

"It is?" the Captain turned around and sat on her chair, "Well, put it on the main screen."

"Roger." Levanter answered and pressed a red button on his left. The President's image appeared on the screen as his speech was being broadcasted throughout the Union.

"_AS YOU ALL KNOW, A FEW MOMENTS AGO, JUNIUS 7 FELL ON EARTH BECAUSE OF EXTREMISTS THAT FOLLOWED PATRIC ZALA'S PATH…"_

"He's got that right." Austere blurted.

"Amen." Levanter said as he navigated the Legacy over the forest.

"…_BECAUSE OF THEM, MANY INNOCENT PEOPLE LOST THEIR LIVES. THIS IS DEFINITELY DONE WITH NO OTHER PURPOSE BUT TO EXTERMINATE ALL NATURALS…"_

"Whoa… now HE's with Blue Cosmos?" Levanter shouted.

"I have no idea…" Austere sighed.

"…_LUCKILY, THE LARGER FRAGMENTS FROM JUNIUS SEVEN DIDN'T HIT OUR NATION. HOWEVER, WE STILL LOST A LOT OF LIVES FROM THE FALLING SMALLER FRAGMENTS…"_

"…Just like Clark…" Silve trailed off, getting him a worried look from Mia.

"…_A FEW MOMENTS AGO, I RECEIVED A CALL FROM THE EURASIAN FEDERATION. THEY OFFERED FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR THE UNION. AFTER A MEETING WITH THE COUNCIL, WE HAVE COME UP WITH A DECISION…"_

"Does that mean the Union is joining the Alliance?" Cheska looked at Nicholas, who replied with a shrug of his shoulders.

"…_IN ORDER TO AVOID CONFLICT WITH THE EURASIAN FEDERATION, WE WILL ACCEPT THEIR OFFER. THIS WILL NOT ONLY BENEFIT THE VICTIMS OF THE COLONY DROP, BUT ALL THE CITIZENS OF THE EQUATORIAL UNION AS WELL…"_

"Well, I give you one point for guessing the correct answer, Captain." Levanter joked, but Cheska gave him a threatening glare, shutting him up.

"…_BEFORE THAT, I WOULD LIKE TO ENSURE OUR FUTURE TO THE BLUE HEAVENS. LET US HOPE THAT IT WILL PROTECT OUR LEGACY, WHICH SHOULD TAKE FLIGHT, AWAY FROM ITS MOTHERLAND… WITHIN A FEW MOMENTS, THE TREATY SHALL BE SIGNED AND THE EQUATORIAL UNION WILL OFFICIALLY BECOME A PART OF THE EARTH ALLIANCE… THAT IS ALL."_

After the speech was done, the Captain turned off the screen from her controls.

"Does that mean that the Equatorial Union will be joining the Alliance from now on?" Cheska pondered on her seat.

"Probably… but that's a pretty weird way to end a speech." Nicholas scratched his head.

"What do you mean?" Cheska turned to the Blitz pilot.

"Who the heck finishes a speech like that?" Nicholas crossed his arms, "Ensure our future… Blue Heavens… and Legacy…"

"What are you getting to?" Cheska stood up.

"Umm… ma'am? We have a transmission from Central HQ." the communications operator interrupted the conversation.

"Very well…" Cheska sat down and faced the main monitor, "…put it through."

"Yes, ma'am." The operator turned on the main monitor and the High Admiral's face appeared.

"High Admiral…?" Cheska asked, too shocked to say anything else.

"Cheska…" the High Admiral glared.

"Oh, sorry… father." Cheska's voice squeaked a bit.

"FATHER?" Nicholas, Silve and Mia all turned their heads and looked at the Captain.

"Yes. She is the High Admiral's daughter." Yuan interrupted as he entered the bridge.

"Y-Yuan?" Silve turned around upon hearing the familiar voice.

"Silve? I didn't expect you to be here." Yuan answered.

"You know each other?" Cheska asked, forgetting about her father on the screen.

"Yeah… We were assigned at the same team when we first entered OMNI. A few months later, he was assigned in the same team as the late Hawk of Endymion."

"Yeah…" Silve smiled.

"Sorry to interrupt, but you seem to be forgetting something." The High Admiral faked a cough on the screen.

"Oh… Sorry, sir!" Silve and Yuan apologized.

"It's alright… it's natural that you would do that. After all, you haven't seen each other for years…" The High Admiral smiled at them, "…anyway, Cheska, have you received the orders from the President?"

"Orders? From the President?" Cheska asked.

"You did watch his speech, didn't you?" the High Admiral answered.

"Yes. We did." Cheska replied as all of the bridge crew were listening.

"The orders were hidden in his speech." The fatherly glow of the High Admiral became that of a military officer, "…entrust the future to the Blue Heavens… that means he's entrusting the rest to the Azure Skies…"

"What? That's a pretty big responsibility!" Silve immediately complained.

"You'll understand it along the way…" the High Admiral assured him, "… and when he said that 'it shall protect our legacy, which shall take flight, away from our motherland', he meant that you should protect the Legacy, which in turn should leave the Equatorial Union immediately."

"Why are we supposed to leave? We are part of the Equatorial Union! We should stay!" Cheska protested.

"You have to leave. In a few moments, the Equatorial Union will cease to exist for it will become a part of the Eurasian Federation. Since the Union will be part of the Alliance, they will most likely take advantage of our knowledge in technology. In order to prevent that from happening, we hastened the launch of the Legacy. All of the data of our technology here have been stored on five different computers distributed within the ship. Copies of those data within the Union have been deleted. As my final order before you depart, I order you to safeguard those data, prevent both ZAFT and OMNI from taking them."

"But father, if this is our destiny, then why don't we just accept it? As far as I know, this region has been poor since the 'Anno Domini'!"

"Remember the single sentence they thought you at the Academy!" the High Admiral shouted at them.

"We were destined to be free, and we are free to change our destiny." The entire bridge crew recited.

"Now, put that to heart. Don't forget it as you go along the way."

"But… father…" Cheska tried to convince the High Admiral.

"Remember… United we stand, divided we will fall… that's what our people believed in… If the Union shall ever fall, be sure that you'll be there to rebuild it." The High Admiral said to all that were on the bridge.

"But…" Cheska tried again, but couldn't find the words to say.

"Ma'am. We're now at the Sulu Sea." Levanter reported, interrupting the little father-daughter moment.

"Captain, we have 32 vessels ahead of us!" Austere shouted, "14 aircraft carriers, 18 Aegis-class sea-battleships!"

"WHAT?" Cheska turned her face to Austere and then faced the monitor again, "Father! What is the meaning of this?"

"I have no choice. I sent them there in the event that you don't follow my orders. They have been ordered to escort you to the border."

"But… I'm not one to follow orders blindly! Not when my nation is in trouble!" Cheska shouted as a few drops of tears ran down her cheeks. When she was about to cry, Nicholas put a hand on her shoulder.

"I know I'm not supposed to butt in like this, but you should follow the High Admiral. If you can't follow his orders as his subordinate, at least follow his order as your father. As an officer, that order may be wrong, but as a father, I'm certain that he's doing the right thing." Nicholas smiled at Cheska.

"Thank you, Doctor Nicholas Amalfi…" The High Admiral said.

"You… you know him?" Cheska asked her father.

"Yes. He's the younger brother of the former PLANT council member Yuri Amalfi." The High Admiral answered.

"So, now what, Captain?" Nicholas asked Cheska while looking at her through the corner of his eyes.

"Hmm…" Cheska closed her eyes for a few seconds and then opened them again, "turn this ship around! Once we're facing the Pacific Ocean, start ascent sequence. We'll ascend to 1000 meters!"

"That's good to hear, Cheska. I'll call off the fleet." The High Admiral said.

"Thank you, father." Cheska said while more tears flowed.

"Now go!" the High Admiral shouted.

"Roger!" Cheska replied.

"We're now facing East. Pacific Ocean is dead ahead." Yohnes said.

"Alright. Start ascent sequence! Put Front-Thrusters to 80 percent power! All rear thrusters, to 75 percent power! Raise the Legacy, ascent angle, 15!"

By Cheska's command, the thrusters of the Legacy roared, turning the waters behind it into steam as it rose from the sea and into the air.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Reverend Malchio's Orphanage, ORB Union…

"A report just got in…" the Desert Tiger told the Captain of the Archangel

"Report? What report?" Murrue asked.

"The Equatorial Union just aligned itself with the Alliance." Andrew said as he took a sip of his coffee, "It seems that the Alliance is making its move once again…"

"It does look that way." Murrue replied, leaning on the railings.

"But my biggest worry is when ORB aligns itself with the Alliance. Not only is it against the nation's ideals, it will also endanger the lives of people from ZAFT. After all, the Minerva is still being repaired at Morgenroete."

"I guess it all rests on Cagalli. If she fails to convince the ORB's politicians to reject the Alliance's offer, we will have to warn the Minerva."

"Let's just hope she doesn't fail. If that happens, Kira, Lacus and I will have to go to the PLANTs… there's nowhere else to go." Andrew sighed.

"Right." Murrue sighed as well. Suddenly, the transceiver inside the house started to crackle, until someone spoke.

"Mr. Andrew Waltfeld… do you copy?"

"Andrew here. How may I help you?" Andrew replied while taking a seat.

"I'm reporting here from the Philippine Sea. An unidentified warship just left their territory. It's currently moving East North-East."

"Unidentified? Is it friend or foe?" Andrew asked.

"Not sure, sir. It doesn't transmit an IFF code."

"What? Aren't all vessels required to have that?" Andrew scratched his head.

"I know, sir, but the our IFF unit won't display anything…" a sigh was heard through the radio, "Anyway, we found remains of a Mobile Suit here… apparently it's from the GAT-X104."

"GAT-X104? Wait a sec… can your vessel handle the weight?"

"Yes sir. It's two tons below the maximum capacity."

"Good. Bring it here. Andrew Waltfeld, over and out."

- - - - - - - - - - -

**A/N: **_Here's another update… Quite fast, eh? I've been having quite a bit of free time lately, most of the time is for waiting for someone… I'm updating during those waiting periods, so it's pretty random. As of now, there's no major change from the previous version. However, there WILL be one on the next chapter… For now, please check if I made any errors since I made a few changes here and there, plus a few expansions. 'til next time!_


	6. Phase 05: In Preparation

Equatorial Union Administrative Palace, Brunei…

"How was the meeting, your Excellency?" the Grand General asked after his salute was returned.

"Fine... They gave the relief funds for the victims of the colony drop. A naval fleet is also on its way here from Marshall Island in the Pacific." The President sat in his desk as the three highest officers stood in front of him.

"Marshall Island? That's not good." The Navarch said while walking towards the giant world map hanging on the President's office.

"And why is that, Navarch?" the President stood and walked next to the Navarch.

"It's the Legacy, sir. That's the direction it went." The Navarch said as he pinned a blue push-pin on the map, "and it's probably somewhere here."

"That means that they may engage the incoming fleet… or vice versa. The incoming Alliance fleet has no idea on the Legacy's identity." The High Admiral crossed his arms as he stood next to the Grand General.

"Let's just hope they'll be able to push through." The Grand General said.

"I'm quite sure they will. My son is there. I'm sure he'll be able to pull it off." The President smiled.

"Your son, sir?" the Navarch turned to face the President.

"Yeah. I'm sure he doesn't know me due to some circumstances, but I know him."

"But sir… We can't have them engage the Fleet… First of all, it's almost impossible to cover up for them. Even if we did, it would appear as though we're allowing hostilities in our Union without us intervening to get rid of such things. When we do intervene, we'd have to engage OUR ship." the Grand General cut in.

"I'm well aware of that, but I'm either too stressed with all the work or I'm too worried about that ship and my son that I can't even think straight." the President said, falling over to the couch and sighing as soon as he landed, "Do you have any suggestions?"

"We can make them divert their course ASAP. That way, they can avoid detection by the Atlantic Federation's Fleet." the High Admiral suggested. The Navarch, on the other hand, was quick to speak.

"Yes, that is a sound plan. However, there is a remote chance that they'll intercept the Legacy as soon as they detect in on their sensors."

"What do you suggest then?" the President asked, putting his hands behind his head and lying on the couch, seemingly laid back on the outside.

"Make them dive to the bottom of the Pacific. Even if the Fleet detects them, they won't be able to do anything. Even if they had aquatic Mobile Suits or Mobile Armors, they won't be able to reach the bottom… they'd be crushed by the pressure." the Navarch explained.

"Yes… that is good… but… won't the Legacy be crushed by the same pressure that was meant to keep away the enemy?" the President asked, sounding skeptical but interested.

"Theoretically, the Legacy can dive to the bottom of the Marianas Trench. The depths at Marshall Islands are nothing compared to that at Marianas. Still, it wasn't tested to that point, just three-quarters of the way."

"Three quarters… I guess that should be good enough. The depth should be enough to keep them at bay." the President sighed in relief, then continued, "Shall we contact them now?"

"There is a possibility that our transmission will be intercepted. Though it may take time for them to decrypt the code, it's not impossible, so if they do decrypt it, we're all goners… us and the Union." The Navarch crossed his arms and exhaled, "We'll have to make contact directly. To ensure that this is done in utmost secrecy, we ourselves must go there."

"Mr. President, I suggest that only one of us go. In the event that something does happen, there would be three of us left to handle the situation." the Grand General suggested.

"That is a sound plan…" the President nodded, "Who wants to volunteer?"

He turned to the Grand General, who quickly shook his head in refusal, "No way! Not me! I'm…" everybody looked at him with curiosity, "…afraid of heights. Aerial Mobile Suits are not my thing."

"Okaaay…" the President looked at the Navarch, "What about you?"

"Oh… Don't expect anything from me… I can handle myself in battle, but we'll need a flying ace for this one. That way, we can be certain that the single unit can take out any interference on the way and get back here." the Navarch replied.

"True… That is true." the President said as he and the two others turned their heads towards the High Admiral, "I guess it's up to you."

"Guess so." the High Admiral sighed as he shrugged his shoulders and sighed, "I guess I'm the only one who's capable of pulling off this stunt anyway."

"It's settled then. We'll record a video message right away. High Admiral, prepare your unit for an immediate launch. Navarch, mobilize the Pacific Fleet and split them into small groups of three vessels each. Spread them through out the Pacific Ocean and the Philippine Sea, within our borders. Put a third of the Fleet on patrol around the South China Sea." the President ordered, returning to his desk and opening a laptop, "The South China division would act as our background. We'll make it appear that we've sent out the Pacific Fleet to patrol our waters while at the same time bringing aid to remote islands, but our main objective is to provide support for the High Admiral should he be attacked on international waters. Deploy both Elijah-class Carriers and have all their units put on standby."

"Affirmative… It shall be as you ordered." the Navarch saluted, about-faced and marched out of the room to carry out the President's orders.

"Grand General, please take over the High Admiral's post while he's off. Scramble 4 M1Fs to accompany the High Admiral."

"It shall be done." the Grand General saluted and turned around, leaving almost immediately.

"As for you, High Admiral, get your unit ready. You're launching as soon as I'm done with the video message." the President ordered, pressing a button which lowered a camera from the ceiling.

"As you wish, Mr. President." the Admiral saluted, then left the room. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number, "Prepare the Cobalt Blue, equip with Mission Package Sierra."

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Clark Airbase, Philippine Archipelago, Equatorial Union…

Minutes later, 4 MBF-M1F Astray Fs were standing on the tarmac, overlooking the ruins that were once Clark Airbase. The four Astrays, four of the Union's twenty Astrays customized to fit the Equatorial Union's specifications, stood over the ruins while waiting for the High Admiral to arrive, their Midnight Blue colors standing out in the midst of the gray ruins. Unlike the normal M1, the M1F is equipped with a total of 8 Armr Schneider Combat Knives, hidden throughout the unit, as well as a beam rifle with greater range and accuracy. It also boasts a reinforced shield, twice as sturdy as those of the GAT-X105 Strike, and a couple more beam sabers. On its back is a compacted Aile Striker Pack, dubbed as the Mini-Aile, delivering more than enough thrust to keep the M1F airborne for as long as the battery can hold. Having been equipped with Type 2-4 batteries, improved Type 2 batteries built by Equatorial Union engineers, the Astray was able to stay in combat for as much as 50 percent more than the Alliance's Strike Daggers and ZAFT's ZAKU Warriors. Even with the improved battery, the M1F Astray was equipped with more conventional weapons rather than beam weapons. Among its arsenal of beam weapons were the beam rifle, beam pistol, a beam boomerang on the shield and a pair of beam sabers. Its conventional arsenal, on the other hand, consists of a pair of 9.1 meter-long anti-ship swords, similar to the IWSP, as well as its reinforced shield which mounts a 25mm Gatling gun and its beam boomerang.

Within a few minutes, a bleep appeared on the M1F's radars. Just as soon as the bleep appeared, a Cobalt Blue mobile suit landed in front of them, with its canine-silhouette emblem with a bright blue star on its left shoulder armor, standing up and looking at the M1Fs. The unit which arrived was the MBF-E1C Cobalt Blue Astray, a toned-down duplicate of the Astray Blue Frame. Aside from the standard weapons package found on the prototype Astrays, it was also equipped with the M1F's conventional weapons with a few modifications. First of all was that the anti-ship swords were now fused with 75mm armor-piercing rifles. Second was the addition of a long-range beam sniper rifle, capable of shooting down a target up to 15 kilometers away, with an accuracy / - 1 ft at maximum range. The rifle is mounted on its right shoulder armor when not in use, folded in two to enable greater movement. Its greatest innovation was a little add-on done by the engineers of the Union: the Phased Mirage. On the G-weapons of OMNI, prototype machines of ZAFT, collectively known as GUNDAMs, utilize the Phase Shift Armor technology which effectively block away any non-beam attack, protecting itself from a great deal of damage. At the Union, they were able to use the principles of Phase Shift Armor to apply a coating of Mirage Colloid Particles throughout the unit and at the same time, spread the particles on the space around the unit. Though it uses greater energy than the conventional Mirage Colloid, it has an advantage that has proven to be priceless; the ability to attack while being hidden. Like fighter jets of the 21st Century, the Cobalt Blue was able to utilize different combinations of avionics and weaponry for offensive and defensive purposes. In this case, it is equipped with the Sierra package, designed for stealth and fast-paced short-to-long-range combat. All these features were a perfect match for the abilities of its pilot, High Admiral Vincent Benthal, who came to be known by the name "Sirius" during the First Bloody Valentine War, where he literally ripped enemies that came across him to shreds, which, in that case, were the ZAFT pilots since the Equatorial Union became part of the Alliance for a brief moment of time. After more than two years, the Dog Star has returned to the cockpit of a Mobile Suit not in order to fight, but to relay something which is greatly significant in the welfare of the Union and its citizens.

"Listen up. For this mission, our team will be identified as Canis Major." the High Admiral relayed his orders to the other Astrays, "We are to fly to Marshall Islands as fast as possible. You are to remain on standby on the scattered islands while I execute my orders. You, the members of the Union's Astray Squadron, are the elites of the elite. However, I shall not hesitate to get rid of you should you decide to disobey my orders on this mission. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir!" the voices of the Astray pilots snappily

"Alright, let's head out!" the High Admiral ordered, spreading the Cobalt Blue's wings and leaping into the air, followed by the 4 Astrays. All 5 units flew out and headed to the East, towards the Pacific Ocean and the Marshall Islands, where the Legacy and its crew were.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Launch Catapult 1 (CAT-01; front-most), Legacy, 320 kilometers West-Southwest of Marshall Islands…

"How are things here?" the Captain asked as the mechanics stabilized the STRIDE Flyer that became the Legacy's second set of sensors.

"We've reinforced the attachments to the floor. Austere's in there modifying that thing's OS and the Jammer's software… We've also attached a direct link between the Bridge and that STRIDE's control systems. That way, we can fly this ship from up there or from down here. However, this thing's control systems has Lt. Yuan Austur's biometrics as its key, so he's the only one who could control the ship from down here." the other pilot of the Legacy itself, Zeal Levanter, said.

"Yes, that's good and all, but…" Cheska cupped her chin and gave the STRIDE Flyer a puzzled look, "…what exactly is the exact purpose of putting an extra control system for the Legacy? We already have 2 controls up there, don't we?"

"Uhh…" Zeal scratched his head, obviously not knowing what the purpose was.

"For one, it would be easier to watch the systems of the STRIDE Flyer from down here. And no one else is better at doing so than the STRIDE's pilot himself. Second, we can arm the STRIDE which is stuck down here with various beam weaponry for a frontal assault once the gates are opened or aquatic weaponry for underwater combat. Third, we can use this as a relay station between the other STRIDE and the Bridge crew… after all, we still haven't figured out a way to communicate with them at long range. So far, our communications have only been at close range, and that was done since the Azure Skies' Jammer has been turned off during the last few moments of their first contact… How Silve or Natalie ended up turning it off in mid-battle is beyond me." Yohnes explained, still tapping away on the computer which they brought in to connect with the STRIDE's.

"Good point." Cheska sighed, "…but please, make it so that this STRIDE can only be activated with _both_approval from the Bridge and the biometrics. Is that okay?"

"That won't be a problem… Just give me some time." Yohnes answered, continuing with his work.

"Okay. How are the two pilots?" the Captain asked, looking at Nicholas, who was, like a kid, watching Yohnes do his work.

"Oh… those two? I instructed them to get some rest… I'm just unsure whether they listened to me." he sighed, rolling his eyes.

"I just hope they do. They're the only ones capable of defending this ship." Cheska sighed, then looked at Yohnes and Zeal, "Speaking of which… Who's flying this thing?!"

Yohnes and Zeal looked at each other and then looked back at the Captain, "Dunno."

"Oh brother." Cheska sighed, grabbing Zeal by the ear and dragging him all the way to the Bridge, "You, Lieutenant Commander, are not part of the maintenance crew nor are you the maker of the STRIDE's Jammers, so let's get back to the Bridge where _your_ job is waiting for you."

Nicholas and Yohnes just looked at the poor Zeal as he was being dragged away by the Captain, hearing his screams of agony fading into the halls of the Legacy.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Open View Deck 1, port-side of Legacy, 318 kilometers West-Southwest of the Marshall Islands…

Silve looked over the railings and looked down into the sea, leaning over to watch the ships shadow on the water. He heard the door open but paid no attention to it. He heard a voice, but still, he did not pay attention to it.

"Silve?" the girl, Natalie, called him.

"…" still, there was no answer.

"Silve!" Natalie called him again.

"…" again, there was no answer.

"First Lieutenant Silve Almana, _sir_!" she called, calling him properly as her superior, yet with a somehow sarcastic tone. Somehow, she succeeded in catching the young pilot's attention.

"Yes?" he asked, turning his head towards her all the while keeping his body fixed on position, "You sounded kinda sarcastic... Is everything all right?"

"Yes,_sir._" she said, keeping the sarcastic tone.

"Well, I'd like to remind you that that's no way to talk to a superior. No matter how you look at it, I'm your superior." Silve turned his head back towards the horizon. Natalie flinched, not sure of what to say. True, she was annoyed with him ignoring her, but above that, she was his subordinate and she has to go by the rules.

"S-sorry for how I acted, sir…" she said, lowering her head.

"…" Silve, however, did not respond.

"H-hey… I said I was sorry…" Natalie raised her head a bit and looked at Silve, who didn't even budge.

"…" still, he did not respond nor did he appear to exert any effort to do so.

"F-first Lieutenant… I said I was sorry!" she raised her voice, taking a few steps closer to him. Much to her surprise, he turned around with a big grin plastered on his face.

"Relax, Natalie… You can call me Silve if you want." he smiled, turning around to face the horizon again, "It's quite nice here, isn't it?"

"Uhh… Y-yeah." Natalie looked at Silve in surprise, surprised by the fact that she wasn't able to read his actions, whether he was serious or just fooling around. An awkward silence followed soon, but it didn't last long for Silve decided to leave the area.

"I'll be back in my quarters… Knock if you need me. Remember, normal rules apply when we're in front of others, but just call me Silve when we're alone, okay?" Silve said while walking past Natalie, not even bothering to stop or turn his head around to face her. He raised his left hand and waved backwards while casually walking towards the door. The door automatically opened and let him in. He walked through and it closed behind him as he went deeper into the ship. Natalie turned around and looked at the rails on which Silve was leaning. Much to her surprise, there was a piece of sticky pad attached on the rail and a smiley which was meant to mock her was drawn on it. Below it were the words "Had you going there for a brief moment! Gotcha!"

Natalie ripped the paper from the rails and crumpled it in her hands, her face frowning and turning red from anger.

"ALMANA!!" she shouted as she opened the door and ran into the ship, in hopes of finding the roguish red-haired pilot.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Pacific Ocean, 318 kilometers West-Southwest of Marshall Islands…

Two of the four M1F Astrays flew down from above the team and rejoined the formation, putting themselves behind the entire group.

"We have a visual of the ship, sir." one of the pilots reported, immediately sending the coordinates to the High Admiral.

"Very well… the four of you, scatter!" he ordered, sending the four M1F Astrays flying into multiple directions away from him. With the four descending below the clouds, the Cobalt Blue increased its speed and dived straight down into the thick clouds, shooting through it like a falling star. Once on the other side of the clouds, he saw the other Astrays landing on the scattered islands hundreds of kilometers away from the Marshall Islands. He descended at an even greater rate, pulling up and flying parallel to the sea only when he was less than 100ft above it.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Bridge, Earth-forces Tarawa-Class Carrier 'Lo', Pacific Ocean, Marshall Islands…

"Commander! Heat source detected by AWACS! Identity and faction, unknown." the ship's CIC shouted, loud enough to be heard by everybody. The Fleet's commander, Commander Luke Halberton, stood up from his seat.

"Deploy a team of Windams! Mobilize the Fleet to move slowly behind the Windams. Have another team ready for launch as soon as the first team has launched." Luke ordered, stepping down from his elevated seat and walking towards the frontal area of the Bridge, closer to the window, _"I won't stop until I get those that killed you… father."_

As he ordered, a team of 10 Windams launched and spread across approximately a hundred square meters above them, flying off into the direction where the AWACS detected the unknown heat source.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Legacy's Bridge, Pacific Ocean, 317 kilometers West-Southwest of Marshall Islands…

Cheska just got on her seat after more than a minute of dragging Zeal Levanter all over the ship by the ear. Zeal, on the other hand, was holding the ship's yoke with one hand and his ear with the other.

"You didn't have to drag me all the way here, you know…" he said, pouting like a kid who didn't get anything on Christmas morn.

"That's what you get for not following orders… and I can't exactly get you Court-Marshalled at this crucial point when we've just been kicked out of our nation." Cheska sighed. The moment her hand touched her forehead, the alarm in the Bridge went nuts and red lights flashed all over the ship.

"What? It's illegal to touch my own head with my own hands?!" Cheska sarcastically asked the Bridge Crew on duty.

"No, ma'am… We have bogeys from both sides of the ship!" the Legacy's CIC explained, "From West-Southwest, one unidentified heat source approaching at supersonic speed. Unit tagged as Bogey-1. From East-Northeast, ten units, identified to be EAF GAT-04 Windams. Each target is tagged as W1 to W10."

"Alright… Declare Battle Condition: Code Red!" Cheska said, responding to the situation.

"_ALL HANDS, BATTLE CONDITION: CODE RED. I REPEAT, ALL HANDS, BATTLE CONDITION: CODE RED."_

The battle alarm echoed throughout the ship, sending its crew on a high-speed scramble to reach their stations. Among them are the Bridge Crew at CAT-01 and the pilots who were on their way to their quarters.

"Okaaaay… Another sortie." Silve sighed, folding the book he was reading and running off to the hangar from his quarters.

Back at the bridge, the crew also got into their positions, with Yohnes coming in almost as soon as the general alarm was raised.

"What did I miss?" he nonchalantly asked, jumping to his seat and buckling himself up.

"We have eleven bogeys heading for us. One is coming from West-Southwest and flying at supersonic towards us. The other ten are coming from East-Northeast, identified as EAF Windams." the CIC briefly informed the Legacy's pilot.

"Alright then… is the unidentified unit squawking an IFF code?" Yohnes quickly asked, flipping the switches in his panel and preparing the Legacy for battle.

"Yes, sir… Unit is transmitting an unidentified hexadecimal IFF code. Code is 0076A"

"0076A?" Yohnes paused for a bit, feeling rather familiar with the said code._"0076A… Where have I heard that before?"_

"It's a special IFF Code…" Yuan interrupted from one of the CIC posts.

"Special IFF Code?" the Captain asked.

"Yes… You just said that it was a hexadecimal code. Its decimal equivalent is 1898… You do know the significance of that number to us, right?"

"Independence day…" Cheska's voice trailed off, "So does that mean we have a friendly unit heading for us?"

"That's the most probable situation." Yuan answered, resuming his job as the CIC.

"Wait a minute… I remember now…" Yohnes finally resumed, breaking free from his temporary pause, "…0076A is also the unit identification code used by the highest ranking officers when flying in territorial waters. When an aircraft with the said code enters a given airspace, it is given the top priority only to be set aside when an emergency occurs within the same airspace. Internationally, it is used as the IFF Code for most light subsonic transport aircraft, but when an aircraft transmitting 0076A travels at supersonic at any given time, it could only mean one thing…"

"We have top brass heading for us." Zeal sighed, gripping the controls tighter, "What do we do, Captain?"

"Deploy the Azure Strike and the Flyer. They are to prepare to intercept the incoming Windams. We'll go around and meet up with the unidentified unit." Cheska ordered, "What is the status of the unidentified unit?"

"You wouldn't believe this ma'am, but…" the other CIC grew silent for a bit, not knowing what exactly happened, "…but the unit disappeared from radar."

"WHAT?!" the news caught Cheska by surprise. All of a sudden, a blue Mobile Suit materialized in front of the Bridge, with particles of Mirage Colloid dispersing into the air. Its eyes lit up and stared at the Crew of the Bridge, who in turn got a clear view of its upper torso and shoulder armor, enabling them to see the crest on its left shoulder armor. Cheska, who was all too familiar with the insignia, leaned back into her seat in relief. _"Father…"_

At the same moment, a communications screen appeared on the main monitor of the Legacy. In it was the face of the High Admiral, wearing a dark green flight suit with the stars adorned on the side of his helmet, just as the feather was to the Hawk of Endymion.

"You shouldn't let your guard down, Cheska… I easily got to you at point blank." the High Admiral chuckled, "Come out here… I have something to give you."

"Alright…" Cheska smiled, standing up and headed out of the Bridge. However, she stopped a few steps away from the door and turned around, "…get the Azure Skies out there…"

"Yes ma'am." Yuan nodded, opening a line towards the hangar, "Azure Strike and Flyer are to launch immediately. Flyer goes first… Equipment pack, AF-SS01A Skies."

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Launch Catapult 4 (CAT-04; front-facing rear catapult), Legacy, 315 kilometers, West-Southwest of Marshall Islands…

The airlocks opened and a small fighter came through, positioning itself on the catapult, which in turn automatically adjusted the unit for the addition of equipment. Panels opened from the top and the Skies Striker Pack was lowered and attached to the rear of the Flyer. The swords straightened and positioned themselves parallel to the wings. The catapult moved the Flyer a few meters forward and the airlock closed behind them. At the same time, the catapult's rails extended while the gates were opening. Once they were fully opened, a horizontal line of red lights appeared on both sides and the airlock closed behind her.

"Natalie Mia Halcyone… Skies Flyer, taking off!" she closed her helmet and launched from the Legacy, the red lights on both sides turning green. She immediately banked to the left and circled around the Legacy as soon as she launched, waiting for the Azure Strike to go airborne.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Launch Catapult 2 (CAT-02; starboard catapult), Legacy, 315 kilometers, West-Southwest of Marshall Islands…

"_NEXT UP, AZURE STRIKE…" _Yuan's voice could be heard saying on the internal communications.

"I know, I know, Yuan." Silve replied, closing his helmet and planting the Azure Strike's feet on catapult's platform. Panels opened on both sides of the catapult, bringing out its beam rifle from the right and a solid defense shield from the left.

"_DON'T MIND THE SHIELD, SILVE… IT'S FROM THE EAF'S DAGGER… IT'S NOT THAT STURDY, BUT IT SHOULD DO THE JOB."_

"No kidding…" Silve chuckled right before his face turned serious and he tightened his grip on the controls. The catapult's gates opened in front of him and the rails extended frontward, red lines glowing horizontally. The airlock closed behind him and the Azure Strike slightly crouched to prepare for launch. Its eyes glowed brightly, signaling that it was about to launch. "Silve Almana… Take me to the skies, Azure Strike!"

The Azure Strike flew out, activating its thrusters as soon as it separated from the catapult. Like a snow-covered bird taking flight, the Azure Strike shed off the gray coloring in favor of its Phase Shift-induced color. Even before the Azure Strike could finish accelerating upwards, the Skies Flyer came up from behind and fused with the Azure Strike, forming the Azure Skies.

"Let's go, Mia!" Silve enthusiastically shouted.

"Right…" Mia replied, not forgetting what Silve pulled off a few moments earlier at the Open View Deck. They flew off towards the ten Windams and prepared to intercept.

"You seem to be upset… Is anything the matter?" Silve asked, with a gentle smile on his face.

"I'm perfectly fine." Mia aloofly replied, flipping down a panel from the top and covering the newly installed camera used for video communications.

"Women… Can't live with them, can't live without them…" Silve sighed. "Well, please share your thoughts if you want… I might be able to help."

"There's no need. I can handle it. Just focus on your job and I'll keep watch on the surroundings." Natalie coldly replied, abruptly closing the video communications.

"_What's eating her?" _Silve asked himself as he continued to navigate the Azure Skies towards the Windams.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Outside the Legacy, 314 kilometers West-Southwest of Marshall Islands…

"Father…" Cheska said under her breath as she slowly approached her father.

"Cheska…" the High Admiral replied, pulling out a small black box from his pocket, "…take this. Inside it are the President's specific orders. Aside from that, I have been ordered to give you a separate order. The Legacy is to go around the Marshall Islands and head for somewhere secure such as ORB. However, we have received information that ZAFT's Minerva is currently docked at Morgenroete. Still, it should be considered as your primary option. Your secondary option would be to head for the Kingdom of Scandinavia through the Arctic Ocean. You _will_come across threats from the Alliance, but the distance should be manageable with the Legacy's speed. You should be able to get into Scandinavian territory before you get shot down. That should be your secondary option. Your tertiary option would be to act on your own accord and you, as Captain, should decide on which route you should take, excluding the first two options."

"But… What do we do after that?"

"Simple." the High Admiral smiled, removing his helmet, "…gather allies from all over the world and win back the Union… If not, at least the Republic."

- - - - - - - - - - - -

**A/N:**_Okay, here's the newest Chapter for Reverie. I managed to get some free time in between exams and I made the chapter extra long. I've incorporated some major changes compared to the previous version of Reverie and there's a bit more story to it this time. Next chapter may come on or before February 19 since we'll be having our foundation day at school and it's mostly free time for students. So 'til then, see ya guys! Please feel free to PM me if had committed any mistakes in my writing._


	7. Phase 06: Equatorial Astrays

_RECAP_

"_Simple." the High Admiral smiled, removing his helmet, "…gather allies from all over the world and win back the Union… If not, at least the Republic."_

_END OF RECAP_

Outside the Legacy, 314 kilometers West-Southwest of Marshall Islands…

"The Republic?" Cheska asked her father, obviously puzzled as to how they'll win back something that ceased to exist for almost a century.

"Do I have to repeat myself, Colonel?" High Admiral Benthal raised his eyebrow on his daughter.

"I… I'm sorry sir." Cheska stiffened up and looked down on the ground.

"Now…" High Admiral Benthal exhaled, pausing for a bit, "Are you ready to carry out your orders, Colonel?"

"Yes, sir." she raised her head and snappily replied.

"Good." he replied, smiling at his daughter, "Make me proud, Cheska…"

"Sure…" Cheska smiled back. A brief moment of silence followed when the external speakers jolted to life and Nicholas' voice was heard.

"_CAPTAIN, WE HAVE A SITUATION HERE." _Nicholas said, sounding a bit problematic, _"AZURE SKIES HAS ENGAGED THE TEN WINDAMS. 2ND LT. HALCYONE REPORTED A BUNCH OF LARGE OBJECTS AT THE EDGE OF THEIR SENSORS. IF YOU ASK ME, THOSE ARE EITHER CARRIERS OR BATTLESHIPS."_

Upon hearing this, a frown formed on both Benthal's faces, with a more intense expression on the High-Admiral's face.

"Get the heck out of here. Dive to the bottom of the ocean… they won't be able to reach you there." Vincent ordered, putting on his helmet and closing his visor.

"Father?" Cheska called, seeing where the situation was leading to, "…What are you doing?"

"I'll take them on. Call back the Azure Skies. That's an order, Colonel. Get back on the Bridge and handle the situation like the ship's Captain that you are." he said, holding on to the wire extending from the cockpitand holding on to it as it automatically got pulled upward, slowly and steadily.

"But…" Cheska tried to reason with her father, taking a few steps forward, but was stopped by her father's voice.

"Do as you are told, Cheska. If you won't listen to me as your superior, then at least listen to me as your father." he replied, finally reaching the cockpit and standing on the cockpit's floor. "You said you would make me proud, right? Do so by taking the Azure Skies and doing as I told you. Let me handle the situation."

"I-I… I understand, father." Cheska saluted, "Carrying out orders, sir."

"Proceed." her father saluted back and closed the cockpit, buckling himself inside the Cobalt Blue Astray and reactivated its OS. Cheska, on the other hand, turned around and entered the ship, getting on her way to the Bridge.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Pacific Ocean, 300 kilometers West-Southwest of Marshall Islands…

Having thrown off the Dagger solid defense shield and holding both of its beam sabers in its hands, the Azure Skies cut two of the ten Windams sent to investigate the unknown heat source. Leaving only eight more Windams, the Azure Skies returned its beam sabers to its waist and pulled out a pair of Armr Schneider combat knives from its knees. It rammed into one of the Windams and stabbed it with the combat knives on the upper-left area of the torso and one directly into the cockpit. Silve grabbed the Windam and threw it into another one which was coming in, bombarding the two Mobile Suits with fire from the head-mounted CIWS until both units exploded. He pulled out another pair of Armr Schneider and did the same to another Windam, this time stuffing the blade through the Windam's head and leg-joint. A couple of Windams came flying in, shooting at him with their rifles. He used the other Windam as a shield while countering with his own beam fire, courtesy of his shoulder-mounted Hyper Fortis beam cannons. The two Windams were easily incapacitated but not destroyed, so Silve threw the heavily damaged Windam into the other two. The Windam exploded on impact, but would have blown him and Natalie to bits had he not decided to throw it then and there.

"How many more Windams are there?" Silve asked, keeping his eyes on as much targets as possible.

"We have five more…" Natalie answered coldly, cutting off the communications as soon as she was done answering.

"She's taking this battle lightly…" Silve sarcastically remarked, pulling out one of the two Balmung anti-ship swords. He put the thrusters to maximum and flew past a couple of Windams. Right after passing them, he made an extremely sharp turn and slashed both Windams from behind and cleanly cutting them in half. Another was charging at him with a beam saber, and he countered by stabbing it with the Balmung, straight through the cockpit. He released the sword and let it drop to the sea with the Windam, exploding under the surface of the sea as soon as it submerged. Water shot upwards and concealed the Azure Skies from the remaining two Windams. However, as soon as the water fell back to the ocean, the Azure Skies was gone from its location. The pilots of both Windams looked around, but saw nothing except ocean, and thanks to its Jammers, the Azure Skies was virtually invisible from the sensors. Without even the slightest warning or the sound of an alarm, beam fire shot up from below them, hitting each unit multiple times. The Azure Skies, which took a dive as the water fell down, looked at the two Windams as multiple beam shots hit them at random places in the body, causing them to explode in mid-air. The Azure Skies pulled down its right arm, the only portion of its body above water.

"We have large objects heading for us from East-Northeast… we also have multiple smaller objects heading for this direction. Judging from the size of the units and the quantity, I'd say it's a Fleet."

"A Fleet?!" Silve practically shouted, the surprise evident in his voice, "So, do you think we should engage them or should we turn tail and run?"

"It's up to you. You're the pilot of this thing." Natalie replied, keeping the same tone that she had from the beginning of the battle.

"This is getting troublesome…" Silve sighed, picking up the Dagger's solid defense shield he tossed away during the beginning of the battle. He pushed on the throttle and the Azure Skies rose out of the water. Putting the throttle to maximum, the Azure Skies shot out of the water and flew off to face the incoming Windams and the Fleet, all by itself.

"Hey…" Natalie, for the first time, started the conversation, and this time, sounding a bit concerned, "Are you sure you can take them on? We can turn back and head for the ship you know…"

"That's the thing… We're not supposed to let them get on the ship." Silve replied, flying the Azure Skies at maximum speed towards the incoming Fleet.

"If you say so… Just don't do anything reckless." Natalie warned, but just as the peaceful mood was setting itself between the two, a sudden bleep on the screen in Natalie's cockpit.

"What is it?" Silve asked, hearing the bleep through their communications.

"We have a high-speed object heading for us…" she paused to check its identity, "It's the Cobalt Blue!"

"What?! What's _he_doing out here?!" Silve's jaw nearly dropped, turning the Azure Skies to get a visual of the incoming Mobile Suit.

"_GET OUT OF HERE, X03A… THAT'S AN ORDER." _the High Admiral's voice boomed inside the Azure Skies' cockpit.

"But sir, that Fleet is heading straight for the Legacy… We can't let it get through." Silve protested, not bothering to think of the punishment he might face for insubordination.

"_WE'LL TAKE IT FROM HERE."_ Vincent replied, turning on his transmitter to contact the rest of the Astrays, "Canis Major, launch and head for my coordinates. There is an incoming Fleet with its Mobile Suits deployed."

One of the Astray pilots replied, _"SIR, WHAT ABOUT THAT LARGE HEAT SOURCE IN THAT AREA? WHAT ARE WE TO DO WITH IT?"_

"_Oh right… They're unaware of the Legacy's stand in all this…"_he smacked his head upon realizing it, "It's a prototype decoy… You know how current decoys work right? This things a decoy in more aspects than one…"

"_BUT SIR… WE ALSO DETECTED A LARGE OBJECT ON RADAR… IT WAS THAT LARGE HEAT SOURCE."_

"What part of 'prototype decoy' can't you understand? That thing's built to emit false radar signatures!" Vincent replied, _"Good thing they're really developing such a thing back at home…"_

"_UNDERSTOOD, SIR… WE'RE HEADING THERE." _the Astray pilot replied, cutting off the communications and signaling the other pilots to launch. The four M1F Astrays took to the skies and converged in mid-air, coming from different directions. As soon as they did, they turned and went into formation, holding their beam rifles in their hands.

"As for you, Azure Skies…" Vincent Benthal turned his attention to the azure Mobile Suit next to his, "Return to the Legacy. Protect it whenever you must and protect it with everything you've got."

"_YES, SIR..." _Silve's face appeared on the Cobalt Blue's screen, his voice sounding a bit reluctant.

"Now go! The Legacy should begin its descent sequence by now. Catch up with it before it becomes unreachable. We'll hold back the enemy 'til you're gone." Vincent grinned on the screen.

"_WE…?"_Silve asked as he turned his Mobile Suit and flew away.

"Yes… We. My team's coming in and we should be more than enough to hold back the Fleet." he replied. As soon as he finished, bleeps were heard in both cockpits and new contacts appeared on their screens.

"We've got 4 new contacts, incoming at high-speeds… they're Astrays." Mia interrupted Silve, "Look at your screen if you don't believe me."

"When did I ever say I didn't believe you?" Silve asked as he looked at his radar screen, still puzzled by his co-pilot's sudden change in mood.

As the Azure Skies flew away from the Cobalt Blue and slowly descending, the team of Astrays flew right past them, half of the team flying on either side of the Azure Skies at supersonic speeds. The Astrays come to an abrupt halt on the sides of the Cobalt Blue, which was holding its long-range rifle and aimed forward.

"High Admiral… What was that unit?" one of the Astray Pilots, a young Coordinator named Tatiana Lancris, asked. With a very light shade of gold as her hair and a pair of purple eyes, plus her prominent curves, she was easily taken for granted by enemies, the same people that she killed on the battlefield. She pilots the lead unit of the Astray Squadron, which is identified as F01, whose complete identification is Unit F01.

"That…" Vincent paused, thinking of how to inform them without exposing the Azure Skies' identity and mission, "…that thing's carrying precious cargo. We are to stop the incoming Fleet from getting to that Mobile Suit."

"But… I thought we were defending ourselves? Didn't they deploy their units because of the prototype decoy?" the other Astray Pilot, Malkiel Villamor, said. He was the direct descendant of the World War 2 ace Col. Jesus Villamor, and though he was a Natural, his skills were at par with some of the Coordinator elites. He pilots the Astray Squadron's unit 3, which is identified as Unit F03 or simply F03.

"We are… And that was carrying the prototype decoy." Vincent answered, maintaining his airborne sniping position, "Once they cross the 750meter-mark, intercept the airborne units. I'll take out some others and focus on eliminating the escort vessels after that."

A tense five seconds passed as the Windams approached. Tatiana maintained her cool while Malkiel calmly watched the approaching Windams, preparing themselves for quite a tasking battle. Another second passed and the radar readings indicated that the closest Windam was 750 meters away. This gave them the signal to scramble and commence attack. However, as the rules of engagement dictated, they must not fire the first shot. Instead, they aimed their guns at the incoming Windams and put their shields in front of them.

"Don't pull the trigger unless they fire." Vincent warned his squad. Just then, a beam fire from one of the Windams fell on the shield of Unit F01, piloted by Tatiana.

"Can we go now?" Tatiana asked for the High Admiral's permission, obviously irritated by the fact that she was the first one hit by the enemy.

"Yes…" Vincent sighed, _"Impatient as usual."_

Tatiana's Astray F flew towards the incoming Windams, firing at them like there's no tomorrow. Surprisingly, most, if not all, of her shots landed somewhere on the target; be it the arms, legs, torso, head or the backpack. Four of the Windams exploded in midair while 3 lost either an arm or a leg in the initial assault.

"F03, F04 and F05, make a way for me… I'll provide suppressing fire." Vincent ordered. The other three Astray units flew off, F03 being piloted by Malkiel; F04 being piloted by his rather skinny but very agile half-African best friend, Anane Morgenstern, whose lighthearted nature always gets on Tatiana's nerves; and lastly F05, being piloted by Narelle Clarris, the second female pilot of the team, and one of the two people who can get near Tatiana on a personal level. With slightly greater curves than Tatiana, and a less boyish attitude, she's a guy magnet, though she doesn't have any interest in them. The three Astrays fired towards the Windams as soon as they moved in closer. The Windams, on the other hand, were firing back but weren't scoring any hits, given the Astray F's cornered turns and highly enhanced reaction time.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Bridge, Earth-forces Tarawa-Class Carrier 'Lo', Pacific Ocean…

"Sir, nearly 25 percent of the mobilized Windams have been wiped out!" the CIC reported to their Captain and the Fleet Commander.

"What? 25 percent? What about the first ten units? They got out of our radar range a few minutes ago! What happened to them?" the Captain asked.

"We have no visuals sir… Though there have been reports of the emergency beacons being activated." the CIC responded.

"Ten Windams lost in that short period of time… And we've lost 25 percent of the Fleet's Mobile Suits just now. What are we up against?" the Commander, Luke Halberton, interrupted.

"We have identified four Equatorial Union Astray units and one unidentified unit… probably from the Equatorial Union as well." the CIC was about to add something when a beam fire hit one of the escort ships next to the Lo, exploding and rocking the bridge. Once the water settled and the smoke cleared, a pair of sinister green eyes glowed and looked down on the carrier, with its long-range rifle on its hands and aimed at the carrier.

"_WHY DO YOU ATTACK US? IDENTIFY YOURSELF." _the High Admiral's voice echoed on the military distress frequency. Getting no response, he fired another shot, this time, destroying another of the Lo's escort ships with a single shot. _"IDENTIFY YOURSELF. YOU ARE ABOUT TO ENTER EQUATORIAL UNION TERRITORIAL WATERS. JUDGING BY YOUR UNITS, YOU ARE FROM THE EARTH ALLIANCE FORCES. HOWEVER, I CANNOT GRANT YOU ENTRY TO OUR LAND WITHOUT STATING YOUR PURPOSE AND YOUR IDENTITY."_

"What is he talking about?" Luke clenched his fists and stared at the Mobile Suit above them, via the main screen. With its rifle still smoking, the Cobalt Blue Astray targeted the Lo.

"_THIS IS YOUR FINAL CHANCE. IDENTIFY YOURSELF AND YOUR PURPOSE. IF I SEE IT FIT, YOU SHALL BE GRANTED ENTRY INTO THE UNION. HOWEVER, IF I SEE YOU AS A THREAT, I HAVE THE AUTHORITY AND THE MEANS TO ELIMINATE YOU."_

"What the… He's threatening us?!" Luke stood up and gave out his order out of anger, "Order all remaining Windams to take out that last unit! Order all escort vessels to fire on it as well!"

- - - - - - - - - - -

Pacific Ocean, 300 kilometers West-Southwest of Marshall Islands…

Vincent waited for their reply while keeping his rifle aimed at the Lo's Bridge. Suddenly, alarms rang inside the Cobalt Blue's cockpit and red indicators appeared on the screen.

"So this is their answer, huh?" Vincent cockily whispered to himself. He folded the Cobalt Blue's rifle and pulled out the two anti-ship swords, which are also armed with 75mm armor-piercing rifles. The Windams converged around him and tried to slash him with their beam sabers, but he stabbed them on the torso and fired a shot while the blade was still deep within the Windams. Instead of pulling out the sword, he slashed them out, causing further damage to the Windams. Of the 6 Windams that gathered around him, all got the same treatment from the infamous Dog Star "Sirius", being shot and ripped to shreds. Though nearly impossible, all that happened in under-thirty seconds. The Windams exploded around him and black smoke surrounded the Cobalt Blue, hiding it from sight. A few more Windams came in with their beam sabers, but a barrage of armor-piercing shells rained on them as they approached the smoke cluster. All the approaching Windams were decimated even before they got close to the Cobalt Blue. At that same instant, missiles launched from the escort ships and headed for the Cobalt Blue. Knowing that he had no means of avoiding such a large-scale missile assault nor was he capable of taking down all of them, he unfolded his long-range beam rifle and aimed at the Lo's bridge. A single beam shot down from the Cobalt Blue to the Lo, piercing its hull in the middle. Though it didn't hit the ship's fuel tanks, it hit the weapons bay for the Mobile Suits, causing a large explosion which ripped the deck off the ship and causing greater damage to the inside of the vessel.

As the missiles, headed for the Cobalt Blue, Vincent fired the Astray's CIWS at the incoming missiles while continually flying backwards, but to no avail. In the background, he saw a large portion of the ship explode, though the hull itself remained in one piece. _"Tch… How do I get rid of all this missiles?"_ he thought as he continually fired at the missiles, taking out a bunch, but still having a large cluster heading for him.

Suddenly, bullets came from all directions and provided a screen of offensive fire for him, destroying any thing that tried to get through. He looked at the sources of the fire and discovered that they were from the gatling guns mounted on the shields of the Astray Fs.

"Your superiors weren't wrong when they decided to nominate you for the Astray Squadron..." Vincent commented as the four Astray Fs moved closer, leaving a sea full of Windam debris behind.

"We wouldn't be the elites of the elite if we weren't good, sir." Anane replied, with a big smile on his face when he talked to the High Admiral.

"Well said, Lt. Commander." Vincent answered, "Tell me, what about the other units? Have they been eliminated?"

"Yes sir." Tatiana answered on behalf of the team, "Now all that remains are those ships. They're out of Mobile Units."

"I see…" the High Admiral removed his helmet and took a deep breath, "Commander Lancris, contact the Naval Forces… Tell them that I want them here as soon as possible."

"Understood..." Tatiana replied, cutting off the communications with the High Admiral.

"Alright then…" Vincent sighed as he aimed the beam rifle at one of the remaining ships before opening a communications link between him and the Earth Forces Fleet thru the military distress frequency, "…do you still wish to engage? Or would you rather identify yourself and state your purposes to coming here?"

"_WE DO NOT WISH TO ENGAGE. WE ARE THE EURASIAN FLEET SENT FOR THE PURPOSE OF ASSISTING THE EQUATORIAL UNION IN ITS RECOVERY OPERATIONS PRIOR TO THE FALL OF JUNIUS SEVEN."_ an answer cackled on the radio.

"Very well… I give you permission to enter the Union's waters on the grounds that each of your ships be guarded by one of our own. Are we clear on the conditions?"

"_UNDERSTOOD… WE'LL STAND BY FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS." _the same person who answered replied, before sending out a general transmission to the other ships, _"AS THE SECOND IN COMMAND OF THE FLEET, I ORDER THE SHIPS TO CEASE BATTLE OPERATIONS AND STAND DOWN. STAND BY AND WAIT FOR FURTHER ORDERS. I REPEAT, CEASE BATTLE OPERATIONS AND STAND DOWN."_

"Well, that was easier than expected…" Malkiel commented, removing his helmet, "High Admiral, What about the carrier? It's sinking."

"Let it be, Lt. Commander…" Vincent coldly replied, "Anyone left alive in there will have plenty of time to get off… We can't help even if we wanted to… We'll have to wait for the Naval Forces before we can do anything for that ship."

Just then, two squadrons of fighters flew above them, signaling the coming of the EU's Naval Fleet. As they looked at the horizon, they saw one large carrier accompanied by at least two smaller carriers and twenty escort vessels appeared. Ahead of the fleet flew another 4 squadrons of fighters, keeping watch on the skies and the seas.

"That was fast…" Vincent commented, knowing how far they were from the border of the Union.

"_HIGH ADMIRAL BENTHAL…" _a rather familiar voice was heard on the radio, _"WE GOT ON OUR WAY ONCE WE RECEIVED WORD THAT YOU ENGAGED THE ENEMY… I THOUGHT YOUR SQUAD MIGHT NEED SOME HELP."_

"It's not that much of a problem, Navarch." Vincent said to the highest ranking naval officer. Helicopters launched from the deck of the Union's carrier and headed towards the sinking Lo.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Legacy, 2 kilometers underwater, Pacific Ocean…

"Airlock has been drained of water. Azure Skies can now enter." Zeal declared as he opened the airlock's gates from the Bridge. The Azure Skies stepped in and walked towards the walls. Once there, a panel opened in front and on top of the Azure Skies. The Skies Striker pack was lifted away from the Azure Strike and stored on the top of the catapult area, where the maintenance crew rushed to check and repair anything that needs to be repaired on the pack. The STRIDE Flyer, on the other hand, was grabbed by a robotic arm from the wall. It got put in the wall and was lowered to floor level, where the cockpit was opened and Natalie got out, storming out of the area and into her quarters. Silve, failing to notice this, proceeded to position the Azure Strike on the maintenance bay, where restraining arms appeared from the ceiling and clamped on to the Azure Strike's shoulders. A walking platform was placed by the maintenance crew in front of the cockpit and locked it on the walls on both sides, attaching it to the fixed platform on the walls of the maintenance bay. The cockpit opened and Silve stepped out, a bit shaky at first, but somehow able to stand on his own two feet.

"You okay kid?" the Maintenance Crew's Chief Mechanic asked, assisting Silve on his feet.

"Yeah. Thanks." Silve smiled back, "I'm just not used to fighting at that pace. It was easier with the Aether."

"Tough luck, kid… Aether's still wrecked. It would take at least a month to get it done." the Chief Mechanic replied.

"I see… Thanks. I can go on my own from here." Silve smiled, moving away from the Chief Mechanic and holding on to the railings of the walking platform, slowly but steadily walking towards the door.

- - - - - - - - - - -

5 kilometers away, Pacific Ocean…

A small boat skimmed on the water, carrying a cargo that had been ordered by Colonel Neo Roanoke himself. On the small boat were the masked Colonel and his three _subordinates_, Auel, Sting and Stellar. With Sting on the wheel of the boat, Stellar was holding on to Neo like there was no tomorrow while Auel was lying on the small boat's roof. From afar, this would look like a small family on a little boating trip, but something greater was hidden from sight. Inside the boat itself, a young woman lied on the boat's couch, wrapped in a blanket and unconscious, with her red hair covering half of her face.

"_What is it with this one anyway? Aren't we enough?" _Sting thought to himself as he maintained the ship's course, _"Why do we have to leave that Fleet behind anyway? And why would he send our machines ahead of us anyway?"_

Neo, on the other hand, had other things in his mind, _"What does Djibril want with her? She's not that special, she's a Natural and she wasn't born or raised to fight… What's so significant about her?"_

Just as they were having thoughts inside their heads, their _passenger_ was having a little dream of her own. Mumbling in her sleep, she sounded like she was having a nightmare. Amidst the incomprehensible mumbles, a single word kept repeating itself.

"Kira…"

- - - - - - - - - - -

**A/N:**_Oh well… Another chapter… Looks kinda rushed though. I have nothing much to say for now… See ya guys next chapter! I'll make the next chapter much better than this… and hopefully longer._


	8. Phase 07: The Second Legacy

Aprilius One, Aprilius City, PLANT…

Military personnel were scrambling about in a somewhat smooth-flowing chaos as the world was once again heading for a somehow inevitable war. Civilians and soldiers who work for ZAFT have been running left and right to get to their work and to straighten out any flaws in the defense system which may put the entire PLANT in danger… a flaw such as that in Armory One, where three of ZAFT's newest machines were stolen. These were the ZGMF-X88S Gaia, the ZGMF-X24S Chaos and the ZGMF-X31S Abyss, each piloted by members of the Earth Alliance Forces' Phantom Pain. After the break in Armory One, steps have been taken to radically step-up the security on the PLANTs, with team after team being scrambled on reconnaissance and patrol missions around the PLANT's area in space. Though shifts have been very hectic, the personnel have been given enough time to rest, but in a place that is close to having a war, there is no true rest. One of the people who learned this the hard way is the blue-haired, blue-eyed, ZAFT Red Coat Shannon Steyr. With an age around 18 to 21, he seemed to be quite a detached person, rather anti-social, with almost no one to be seen near him except on missions. His efficiency in combat has been proven time and time again as he has completed numerous four-man missions by himself, though this has also given him in a considerable amount of trouble with his superiors for disobeying orders. Recently, he went to intercept an Earth Forces vessel that has ventured into ZAFT territory. As his team headed to intercept, he broke away and completed the mission by himself. Though the vessel was forced to retreat, he did not get away from it unharmed. His ZAKU Warrior lost its left arm and right leg, half of its head and suffered severe damage in the torso area. As the mechanics at his home base in Quintilis would say, he has ZAFT's all-time record for the most number of repair jobs for a Mobile Suit within a month. He also holds the most number of unit replacements due to their unfixable nature, having changed his Mobile Suit a total of 7 times in the First Bloody Valentine War and 3 times just for patrolling around the PLANTs. Even so, his exceptional skill has gotten the attention of the top-brass of the military, and above all, the Supreme Council, which helped make him stay in his position and kept him from being dismissed. Today, he is to meet with a member of the Supreme Council after his recent unit has been declared "beyond repair".

Shannon made his way through the busy corridors of the Supreme Council's building. Everywhere he went, there was at least one member of the Council being surrounded by a large number of high-ranking military and civilian officials, but none of them was the person he was to meet. Eventually, he reached an elevator where, by chance, he met who he was supposed to meet.

"Chairman Dullindal." Shannon saluted as he stepped on the elevator and the door closed behind him.

"At ease, Shannon." the Supreme Council's Chairman smiled and signaled the young man to relax, "Let me ask you something. Are you aware of why you were called here?"

"To be quite frank sir, no." Shannon replied, maintaining his cool yet calculating state of mind.

"To be honest, it's about your little _record_ which has made you a legend amongst the maintenance crew throughout the PLANTs." the Chairman chuckled as he turned and stared at the ceiling.

"Oh, that." the stoic Shannon blushed in embarrassment.

"It's alright, Shannon." Gilbert Dullindal reassured the young Red Coat just as the elevator doors opened and revealed a large area that had a view of both the PLANTs and the Earth on its windows. He stepped out and took a seat on one of the large couches, signaling Shannon to follow suit. Shannon, being the soldier that he was, followed what he understood to be the Chairman's orders and sat on the other couch, opposite of the Chairman on the other side of the glass table. Shannon gave the Chairman a blank yet composed look, owing to the unknown nature of the summons. The Chairman got the idea and immediately continued.

"Shannon, your wrecking of numerous units may be seen as a trouble to average eyes, but to me, there's more to it. It shows your true ability as a pilot." he paused for a bit, giving Shannon a chance to speak.

"But, sir… If I am as skilled as you think I am, why do I keep wrecking all those suits? I must be honest that I'm aware of my capabilities, but you seem to be overestimating me."

"No, as a matter of fact, I'm just stating things as I see them." the Chairman continued, "Though you wrecked numerous suits, and you have the highest tally of unit repair costs, you also have a surprising thing which you fail to notice."

"If I may ask, what could that be?" Shannon's voice sounded the same, though with a slight touch of curiosity.

"By the condition of your units, I'm surprised you still continue fighting and taking out enemy units." the Chairman mused while twirling a little crystal Knight around his fingers, "Few people have taken out a number of units equal to yours, and they did it with intact Mobile Suits while you did so in a severely damaged Mobile Suit. It's a great display of skill, Shannon. In all of ZAFT, I haven't seen anyone with your talent."

"What are you implying?"

"That's pretty frank." Gilbert commented on Shannon's question, yet proceeded with pulling out a little glass box from his pocket. He showed it to Shannon and continued, "This is a symbol of the power I shall bestow on you. Wear it with pride and dignity. Use your power to do what is best for the people, regardless of race or genetic makeup. By wearing this, you are officially a member of FAITH, one of the firsts, in fact. Your authority is above all military personnel, with only the Supreme Council above you. You can make decisions which you think is favorable, if not for the battle, at least for the people fighting the battle. Anyone who disobeys a direct order from a member of FAITH such as you would have to face the consequences to be brought to them by the Supreme Council."

"I don't mean to be rude, sir, but isn't this a bit too much?" Shannon's eyes stared at the emblem, "Giving that much power to a person with little experience not only on the battlefield but on life itself… Isn't that too much to gamble? I honestly don't know what I'd do if I made an entire squad do something wrong and this ends up killing them. That's the reason why I always do my missions alone. I think it's better if you give that power to someone more experienced. It would be put to better use."

"True, if you put it that way. But the younger generation has ideas that, though crazy, are far more effective than those of the older generations. Older generations may have the mind, but you… You have both mind and body to accomplish what you think should be done. The authority of your superiors is what limits the potential of an individual within a military organization. As a member of FAITH, I, as the Chairman, give you authority to ignore those orders. Do what you think would be the best, and in the event that you fail, face the consequences like a man and never repeat it. Learn from experience, not from books."

"Very well, sir." Shannon stood at attention and then saluted, "I shall accept this order from the Chairman. I'll do my best not to fail you and the people of PLANTs."

"Thank you, Shannon." Gilbert smiled, reaching over the table and putting on the FAITH badge on Shannon's uniform, "Now, would you mind coming with me? There's something else I have to show you."

- - - - - - - - - - -

Undisclosed Location, Pacific Ocean…

Hundreds of miles away from the coast of the American Continents, a gathering of at least 3 complete Naval Fleets and a group of larger research vessels have decided to stop temporarily. On board one of the research vessels, a refitted cruise ship named Benilde, a group of scientists, medical staff and a few of the Fleet's high-ranking officials, among them Colonel Neo Roanoke, stood around a monitor more than a meter away from a quarantined room containing only a bed and Scarlet. It's been more than a day, and even with Cosmic Era's technology, a complete DNA scan and mapping takes a minimum of 30 hours. With only a few minutes left before the mapping was completed, everyone was anticipating the results.

"Why did we have to scan her? She's a Natural, isn't she? What use do we have for her?" Auel, who seems to have found a way in, asked.

"Auel, what are you doing here? I told you to watch over Stellar!" Neo raised his voice, scolding the blue haired Extended.

"These guys…" Auel pointed to some of the officers, "…left the door open. Sting's watching over her, so I decided to walk around."

Neo glared at the other officers, having neglected that the event was of confidential nature. He turned his head to Auel and signaled him to come closer.

"Come. Watch what goes on in here. If you decide to leak information, that's fine with me. We both know who's responsible for your access to this place." Neo said, referring to the officers that left the door open. Auel walked closer and looked through a one-way mirror. Behind it was the Scarlet, completely naked and with probes attached to her entire body.

"Wow… She's nice. Can I play with her?" Auel looked at Neo, asking for permission. All he got was a glare, which pierced right through the mask like it was paper. This silenced Auel for the duration of the time in the room.

"The mapping is done." the lead scientist loudly declared.

"Okay, and? What are the findings? Was our information correct?" Neo asked, rushing over to the computer screen.

"In a Natural's terms, she has the perfect genetic combination. This is quite evident in her physical traits; her bodily proportions, her facial characteristics. Among all the Naturals, she's generally the most attractive, even to some who don't find her beautiful. According to the information you gathered, she isn't exactly the type that excels in different fields. Unbecoming for one with the perfect genetic combination, but it probably has more to do with the psychological aspect." the scientist explained, "However, if we were able to recondition her brain, we may be able to bring out her body's full potential. Once we have achieved that, she can be given a unit and she can be at par with most of ZAFT's top aces."

"She's that valuable?" Neo asked the scientist, "What are the chances that there are others like her? Has anyone in the military come close to her genetic combination?"

"The chances, I'm afraid, are almost none. There has been one in the military who had more or less an eighty percent perfect genetic combination."

"Who is this person?" Neo asked.

"Mwu La Flaga."

The sound of the names sent a chill down Neo's spine. He felt as though his mask was tightening around him, squeezing every bit of his brain and compressing it to a small walnut. Somehow, the name sounded familiar. He was aware that he should know the name, but he was incapable of pointing out why it was important or what it was to him that it should cause him this much agony. He swayed left and right, given the intensity of the pain, yet he managed to stay on his feet, holding on to the nearest desk with his left hand while holding his aching head with his right.

"Is something the matter, Colonel?" the commander of one of the Fleets asked.

"I-I'm fine." Neo replied. He stood straight, as the pain went to tolerable levels. "Excuse me for a bit. I need to get some rest. Auel, get out of here now."

With that, Neo left the room and headed for his quarters. Auel took one last look at Scarlet before taking off to the deck. As Neo steadily walked through the halls, his mind was preoccupied by thoughts regarding his reaction to the name and the name itself.

"_Mwu…La Flaga…"_ he thought. Just then, some sort of hidden memory played back in his head. A feminine voice calling out his name. Or was it his? He tried to recall what he heard in his mind, and surely enough, he heard it clearly in his head.

"Mwu…"

- - - - - - - - - - -

Aprilius One, Aprilius City, PLANT

Shannon and Chairman Dullindal, after navigating through the halls of Aprilius One, finally arrived at a heavily guarded door. The Chairman signaled the guards to open the doors. They entered codes on both sides of the door and it slid open. Behind it was another door, this time, with a biometric scanner standing in front of it. Gilbert planted his feet on the floor and held on the steel ball to scan all of his fingerprints. The lights on the sides of the door went from red to green and the metal doors slid open. Gilbert went in and Shannon followed suit, ending up in a large hangar, where the flood lights activated as soon as they got in. As the lights flooded, it illuminated a large grey Mobile Suit, approximately 21 meters in height, positioned as if it was staring at them. This rendered Shannon speechless, as he stared at the Mobile Suit before his eyes.

"That, Shannon, is your new machine. It's the ZGMF-X01MR-Ph, the Legacy Phasemaker. Originally, it was the ZGMF-X01A Legacy, the first of ZAFT's experimental units. With current developments in technology, we've refitted the unit with the latest advancements. Its Nuclear Reactor was replaced by one with a compatibility with the Deuterion Beam system. We've attached 4 DRAGOON pods on the wings, each carrying 2 smaller DRAGOONs. Control of this is possible through the use of quantum computers. In the Phasemaker's case, it's an AI. It's also equipped with Variable Phase Shift Armor and an upgraded Hi-MAT system." Gilbert explained, turning his head towards Shannon, "All in all, this Mobile Suit's punch is comparable, if not greater, than the Freedom's. It's a CE71 unit which exceeds CE73 capabilities."

"Chairman… Are you sure it's alright to give me this?"

"I'm sure. Your ability, matched with this unit's power and endurance, would make you a legend in the battlefield. With the authority I gave to you as a member of FAITH and with this unit, you can make the necessary changes on the battlefield for the benefit of all."

A few moments later, sounds of gates opening filled one of the hangars of Aprilius One, with the voices of operators echoing through the long vertical shaft.

"Legacy Phasemaker, you are cleared for launch. Detaching power cables."

Cables attached to the back of the Legacy detached themselves, falling to the floor thanks to a weak gravity. The final steel gate opened, and the Legacy's golden eyes glowed.

"Shannon Steyr… this is the Legacy Phasemaker, launching!"

The Legacy shot out of the vertical shaft and flew off into space. Just then, he received a transmission from the Chairman.

"_SHANNON, THERE HAVE BEEN RUMORS OF A PLANNED ATTACK ON CARPENTARIA BY THE EARTH FORCES. I WOULD LIKE YOU TO GO THERE AND VERIFY THE THREATS. IF THESE THREATS ARE GENUINE, DO WHAT YOU THINK IS THE BEST IN REPELLING THE ATTACK. I'LL SEND A MESSAGE THAT YOU'LL BE GOING THERE."_

"Roger." Shannon answered, closing the communications link and increasing the Legacy's pace, which drove him back to his seat due to the unimaginable acceleration, _"This thing's fast."_

In less than a few minutes, the Legacy Phasemaker was out of the PLANT's visual and radar range, heading for Earth to complete his first mission as a member of FAITH.

- - - - - - - - - - -

**A/N: **_Warning: Next chapter something quite crazy on my part. See ya guys next chapter!_


	9. Phase 08: Precious Tranquility

Undisclosed Location, Benilde's deck, Pacific Ocean…

Stellar was staring off into the horizon and watched as dolphins jumped over the surface.

"That's a pretty strange fish…" Stellar commented, turning her head towards her _guardian_, the masked Colonel of Phantom Pain.

"It's not a fish, Stellar… That's a dolphin. They live in tight little families and spend their lives together. Not all of them survive, but what they do almost always benefits the group." Neo sighed after answering, knowing well what was put into the minds of these young individuals from their childhood. _"That's right… You never knew about life… All you knew about was death…"_

He was snapped from his reverie as he felt a slight bump into his shoulders. He turned his head and saw Stellar leaning on him. He smiled and looked out into the ocean, feeling two different pains at the same time: the pain of emptiness and the pain of helplessness. Emptiness since that's how he felt each time Stellar leaned on him, or any woman for that matter. It was like somebody else was supposed to be there instead. To make matters worse, he had to suffer the pain of helplessness at the same time, not because he couldn't find who it was he was supposed to be with, but because he knew that Stellar and the rest of the Extendeds would never come to know the value of life, even if the war ends, and he couldn't do anything about it. To him, it's the second greatest pain he could think of.

"Neo?" Stellar called his name, snapping him from his silence.

"What is it?" He absent-mindedly asked.

"You're too quiet."

"Oh… sorry." Neo smiled and tried to scratch his head, only to rediscover that he had a helmet on. This caused him to laugh a bit, though he did his best to contain it. As Neo Roanoke, it was one of those rare moments that he allowed himself to be lighthearted, a total contrast to the man he once was.

"Tell me… Why do you wear that thing?"

"This?" Neo asked, referring to his mask, helmet, or as he says, whatever it is. _"Even I don't know why… It's been on me for as far as I remember… not that I remember much anyway."_

He pushed his thoughts back to the rearest part of the rear of his head. He was aware that, at that moment, it wasn't Neo who was thinking. He knew it was still him, but a somewhat different him. Again, he drifted off, more today than he ever did in his entire time as a member of Phantom Pain.

"Neo!" Stellar pouted, having noticed that Neo wasn't really paying much attention to her.

"Sorry, Stellar… I just have a lot of things on my mind…" Neo smiled, a pretty pathetic attempt at that, but Stellar bought it. "You should get back in. Sting and Auel are already in there. Don't keep them waiting."

"Yes, sir!" Stellar saluted, rather awkwardly, imitating the other soldiers she saw when Neo ordered them. She turned around and ran towards the inside of the ship, where their _capsules_ were waiting for them. Neo laughed inwardly at the sight. It was rare enough that he was lighthearted, but it was even rarer for those he personally identified as _killing machines_ being lighthearted. He looked at her with pity as she disappeared behind a closing door.

"_You were raised to be killing machines. Knowing what death is and how to deliver it, but never life and how to preserve it. You never learned, and you possibly never will."_

- - - - - - - - - - -

30 kilometers North of Onogoro, Pacific Ocean…

The Legacy shot out of the water and elevated itself to a few meters above the surface, once getting out of the EAF Fleet's range. Everyone in the bridge let out a sigh of relief as they slowly headed for ORB.

"Can someone please tell me why we're heading for ORB?" Zeal complained, keeping only one hand on the ship's yoke.

"What are you complaining about? They're letting us in, aren't they?" Yohnes quickly responded.

"It's not that. I just noticed that for each one-of-a-kind vessel, a trip to ORB is somehow inevitable."

The Captain giggled at this comment. The rest of the crew were quick to laugh.

"What?!" Zeal's face turned red from embarrassment. He put both his hands on the yoke and pretended to fly the Legacy, when it was, in fact, on autopilot.

"It's just funny that what you said is true. On the previous war, the Archangel had to stop at ORB. Recently, ZAFT's Minerva did the same. If we're lucky, we may get to see it before it leaves…" Cheska trailed off.

"Well, I'm guessing it's about to leave ORB. After all, with what happened to the Equatorial Union, it's not a surprise if ORB become's the Alliance's next target." Nicholas butt into the conversation, turning his CIC seat around to face the Captain.

"Oh well… Whatever the case, it would be possible for us to stay in ORB a bit longer than the Minerva. We are part of the Equatorial Union. If ORB stays neutral, we get to stay in their territory, and the same could happen if they join the Alliance. After all, the EU's part of that now."

"Yeah, you're right." Yohnes sighed, "I guess if we do make it to ORB, they'll have _three_ one-of-a-kind ships in their territory at the same time."

"Three? But only the Minerva's there. Add us and that's two. You seem to be forgetting basic mathematics." Zeal mocked, shrugging his shoulders. Yohnes glared at him for a while, then relaxed himself.

"And you seem to be forgetting that the Archangel wasn't defeated in battle. Sure, it was heavily damaged, but it wasn't abandoned. This would also be a likely place to hide it. It would be easily spotted if hidden in one of ORB's space colonies, and it could serve a better purpose by staying within ORB's main land."

"What's your point?" Cheska asked the pilot, who stared at her then answered.

"The Archangel's the perfect escape pod. It's got unbelievable speed, massive fire power and a freakish Mobile Suit guardian."

"Freakish Mobile Suit guardian? You mean the Freedom? Wasn't it destroyed in battle? Let's not forget that anything in the military with the word 'nuclear' is banned by a treaty." Zeal replied, hoping to catch Yohnes off-guard. Unfortunately for him, Yohnes was too smart for that.

"Do you honestly think that ZAFT and EAF would wholeheartedly follow that? For all I know, they might have one or two nuke-powered Mobile Suits hidden somewhere. By restoring the Freedom, ORB has a degree of security against those threats."

Zeal was silenced. Yohnes did have a point. The only way that a Mobile Suit could be defeated is by taking it down by force or exhausting its energy until it crashes by itself. In this case, nuclear powered units could not have their energy exhausted, given their current weaponry. Taking them down would also be a hassle that's close to impossible since these units are almost always piloted by aces. Aces in battery powered units would stand a chance, but they wouldn't be able to fight long enough to cause any significant damage. The only way for ORB to defend itself against such possible threats was to arm itself with at least one nuclear powered Mobile Suit and piloted by an ace or one with such abilities, in this case, the Ultimate Coordinator.

A moment of silence followed. They weren't able to think of any follow-up questions since Yohnes pretty much answered those that they could think of. They just returned to their jobs and remained silent, until a transmission interrupted their little moment.

"_THIS IS ORB'S NAVAL FLEET. UNIDENTIFIED VESSEL, STATE YOUR IDENTITY AND PURPOSE FOR APPROACHING ORB."_

"What should we do? We can't exactly identify ourselves as Equatorial Union. That would arouse suspicions on the officers back home if EAF takes over ORB." Nicholas asked. Cheska then remembered the item given to her by her father. She opened the black box and found an MD inside. Thinking of no other answer, she put it in the slot on her arm rest and it loaded. A video screen appeared on the main monitor, and the President's face was seen.

"By the time you watch this, I'm guessing you're somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. The specific orders for you are contained in data format. It's been encrypted and the decryption keys are the same as those for the STRIDE Flyers. With its programmer with you, you shouldn't have a hard time opening it. But for now, you'll have to get to safety. Your most likely destination would be the ORB Union. I'm well aware that you cannot identify yourselves, so please transmit the attached message, with an encryption code different from the main attachment. Once it has transmitted, you can sit back, relax and enjoy the ride." the President grinned, one that they seem to be familiar with but could not pinpoint.

"Ma'am, I have a confirmation window. Should I transmit?"

"Yes, transmit." Cheska answered, hoping that the President's plan would work. Minutes passed and ORB's Naval Fleet returned to dock, which surprised them, but there was still no response. Another few minutes later, a video transmission appeared on the main screen through the ship's most secure line.

"_THIS IS CAGALLI YULA ATTHA, CHIEF REPRESENTATIVE OF ORB. YOUR TRANSMISSION HAS BEEN RECEIVED AND WE HAVE VERIFIED ITS AUTHENTICITY. I HAVE ORDERED THE FLEET TO STAND DOWN AND YOU ARE FREE TO ENTER ORB. I'M SURE YOU KNOW THE CONSEQUENCES OF ENTERING A FOREIGN LAND. THAT ASIDE, PLEASE SUBMERGE TO 500 METERS AND GO TO THE GIVEN COORDINATES. THE UNDERWATER DOCK IS WAITING FOR YOU. I'LL ATTEND TO YOU PERSONALLY ONCE YOU'RE THERE. EQUATORIAL UNION'S LEGACY, WELCOME TO ORB."_

This left the entire bridge crew in a very deep moment of silence, with a shocked expression painted on each of their faces. They had nothing to say and found no words to express what they felt. They were just plain shocked at the sudden turn of events.

"What… did she… just say?" the usually uncaring Yohnes sounded unusually _alive_.

"That was too easy…" Zeal fell back on his seat, "I didn't expect that to happen."

"I guess the President must've thought ahead…" Cheska cupped her chin, then stood up, "Yohnes, take us to the given coordinates. You're in charge."

She stood up and left the bridge.

"Yes ma'am." Yohnes answered and put the Legacy on a dive. Zeal gave him a good stare before turning his attention to his job.

"Why does it have to be you?" Zeal sneered.

"For one, I'm a lot level-headed compared to you." Yohnes replied, steering the ship to the coordinates given to them.

"Geeez… Why can't anyone trust me a bit more?" Zeal complained, resting on his elbows and leaving the navigation to Yohnes.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Morgenroete Inc., Onogoro Island, ORB Union…

ORB's Chief Representative went to the underwater dock herself and waited for the Legacy's arrival. Leaving behind her escorts, she rushed to the dock's viewing area and watched the "giant empty fish tank" in front of her. While she was staring, the memory of a few minutes earlier crossed her mind.

_FLASHBACK_

_Cagalli was sitting at her desk and browsing through something that she dreaded much more than paperwork itself; the EAF's proposal. Though filled with sugar-coating, it was also overflowing with 'threatening' content. She groaned as she practically threw the cluster of paper on her desk. Her secretary flinched, and sensing this, Cagalli glared at her and asked, "Is there something you want to say?"_

_The secretary nervously shook her head. She knew that if Cagalli was going to vent her anger at her, she had some degree of protection, in legal terms. However, she also knew that with Cagalli's temper, she'd have no legal protection when she 'disappears' after being launched from ORB's Mass Driver. Just as Cagalli was about to launch a barrage of flames towards her 'unlucky' secretary, the phone rang. Furiously, she grabbed the phone and tried to speak as calmly as possible._

"_What the hell do you want?" Cagalli's voice escalated to phenomenal levels. To others, she may seem to be having a little problem with PMS, but to those close to her, they know that she's on the verge of a psychological collapse. However, the voice on the other side was that of a somewhat mature but not necessarily old man._

"_Please calm down, Lady Cagalli…" the voice on the other side of the line said._

"_Oh…" Cagalli calmed down after hearing the man's voice, "…Captain Todaka, it's you…"_

"_Yes, obviously…" Captain Todaka cleared his throat, "…Lady Cagalli, we've received a transmission from an unidentified vessel in our waters."_

"_Then why don't you sink it? If it's unidentified and it's in our waters, then it should be identified by now!"_

"_About that… They're transmitting an encoded video message to us. They've also established a secure communications link with our Naval Fleet."_

"_An encoded message? The decoding was quite fast, if that's the case. How did you do it?"_

"_They claimed to be from the Equatorial Union… And sure enough, they encoded it using an encryption code shared by the military forces of neutral nations... Surprisingly, only the leaders of each neutral nation have knowledge of its existence. Them and their most trusted subordinates."_

"_Have you established any other form of contact with them?"_

"_Not yet, but I suggest you take a look at their encoded message."_

"_Very well, send it here." Cagalli sighed and flipped up a panel on her desk, which was actually a folded LCD screen. A loading screen briefly appeared and the encoded message played automatically. On the screen was the flag of both the ORB and Equatorial Unions. On the left was her late father, Uzumi Nara Attha, and on the right was the Equatorial Union's current President who goes by the name Cupre Armana._

"_SIGNED ON THIS DAY IS THE MARTIAL HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE UNITED EMIRATES OF ORB AND THE EQUATORIAL UNION. UNDER THIS AGREEMENT, ANY VESSEL BELONGING TO EITHER PARTIES, WHEN IN DISTRESS, WILL BE GIVEN IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE AND SHELTERED WITHIN TERRITORIAL WATERS. OTHER CONDITIONS AND SPECIFICS ARE WRITTEN ON THE SIGNED DOCUMENTS, COPIES OF WHICH ARE HELD BOTH BY ME, UZUMI NARA ATTHA, AND CUPRE ARMANA."_

"_BY VIRTUE OF THIS ISSUE, ANY PERSON FROM EITHER COUNTRY CAN FREELY ENTER THE OTHER AS REFUGEES IN TIME OF NEED. THE SAME CONDITIONS SHALL APPLY FOR THE MILITARY FORCES, UNDER THE CONDITION THAT THE VISITING FORCES ARE PLACED UNDER DIRECT COMMAND OF THE HOST COUNTRY'S LEADER."_

"_What's this supposed to mean?" Cagalli stood up from her desk in utter surprise. She hurriedly pressed a button and, soon enough, someone was speaking on the other side of the line._

"_Ma'am?" the man on the other side replied._

"_Mobilize the Naval Defense Fleet. Escort the unknown vessel to Morgenroete, Send reconnaissance units out on patrol. We don't want anyone interfering with what we're doing."_

"_Yes, ma'am."_

_Cagalli put down the phone and turned her attention towards her secretary._

"_Get the car… NOW!"_

_END OF FLASHBACK_

"An Equatorial Union vessel…" Cagalli murmured to herself, _"I guess the reason why the Archangel wasn't able to make it to the Equatorial Union during the previous war was because it has been assimilated by the Earth Forces. And now that it happened again, their ship came running towards ORB… I just don't know how long they'd be able to stay here…"_

Her little moment with herself was abruptly interrupted by the sudden vibrations on the floor caused by the opening of the large gates. She turned her head to see the large vessel, all-gray without its Phase Shift, but with an engraved eight-rayed sun on its side. Slowly being pulled in by cables, it appeared that the vessel entering the dock backwards. Within a few seconds, the entire ship was inside the dock and the large gates closed. Restraining arms reached up from both sides of the dock and attached themselves to the ship and the water was slowly being drained. Finally, for Cagalli, it was time to meet the crew of the mysterious vessel.

Minutes have passed and the water has finally been completely been drained from the dock. A loading tube stretched out from the walls into one of the ship's doors on the side. Cagalli, followed by at least 20 heavily armed bodyguards, marched through the tube and into the doors. Just before they arrived, the door opened and the ship's Captain appeared, escorted by First Lieutenant Almana and Nicholas Amalfi. All three saluted at the sight of Cagalli.

"I'm Colonel Cheska Benthal of the Equatorial Union. Behind me is my subordinate and Mobile Suit pilot, First Lieutenant Silve Almana. The other one is Doctor Nicholas Amalfi, a Red Cross Doctor assigned at Palawan. I would like to apologize for our sudden entry into your territory. On behalf of my nation and of my crew, I would also like to extend my gratitude for taking us in."

Cagalli signaled for the three soldiers to ease up, then signaled her bodyguards to stand down.

"I'm ORB's Chief Representative, Cagalli Yula Attha." she responded, trying her best to avoid being casual, "You do know what happens when you enter _our_ domain, right?" _"Amalfi? Is he somehow related to the PLANT Council's Yuri Amalfi?"_

"Yes. We are put under, and must abide, the rules of the land and the laws that govern it." Cheska responded, "…but other than that, I'm hoping my crew and I can move around freely."

"Yes, you may." Cagalli answered and called for one of her bodyguards. "Begin any necessary repairs and resupply them. I want them ready to go in 3 days. Go and inform the management of Morgenroete."

The bodyguard said nothing. He saluted and hurried on his way.

"Forgive me for the rush, but you have to be ready to leave as soon as repairs are done. We are being pressured by the Alliance to side with them. It's completely against our policies, but more than half of the representatives are against me. I hope you understand."

"It's okay, ma'am." Cheska smiled,

"Thank you for understanding." Cagalli let out a sigh of relief. _"These guys seems to be more laid back than those guys at the Minerva… If I didn't know any better, I'd say they give me the same feeling as the crew of the Archangel."_

"You're welcome, ma'am." Cheska replied with a smile, before turning to Silve, "First Lieutenant Almana, inform the bridge that we're going to stay here for a while. I'm pretty sure they know what to do. I'll shoot them myself if they mess up."

"Yes, Captain." Silve answered, turning around snappily and began his walk towards the bridge.

"I'll have to leave for now. I have some pressing matters that I have to attend to… and personally, I'd love to not attend to them at all." Cagalli sighed, _"This woman reminds me of the Archangel's Vice Captain."_

"I understand. We'll be willing to help in any way we can."

"Thanks." Cagalli smiled, before turning around and walking off back to her office, and her dreaded paperwork. As soon as Cagalli was out of sight, Nicholas spoke up.

"It's a wonder that they let us in so easily." he chuckled.

"Oh well… Whatever the President put in that file, it definitely worked." Cheska shrugged her shoulders and walked off to her quarters.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Earth's Upper Atmosphere above Australia…

"Coordinates for Carpentaria, checked. All systems are functioning normally. I shouldn't have a problem getting to Carpen-!"

A sudden beam fire from nowhere hit the Legacy's left wing. Though not causing any significant damage, the little hole and the small explosion caused the Legacy to swirl out of control on its reentry in the atmosphere. Shannon, however, remained calm and assessed the situation.

"Left wing's electrical systems have been damaged. Right wing's operating normally." he murmured to himself as he checked his unit, "I should be able to regain control after re-entry. Theoretically, this should be able to withstand atmospheric forces during re-entry. I should survive somehow."

He tried his best to at least stabilize his fall, but with his left wing acting as a drag chute, it was close to impossible. For a split second, he saw a black Mobile Suit flying closer to him. He checked the radar for any signs, but there was none.

"_How the heck did that get there? What unit is it?"_

As questions lingered through his head, he finally succeeded in bringing the Legacy to a manageable spin, in contrast to its tumbling state a few moments earlier.

"I'm way off-course… But I guess it's better than crashing."

- - - - - - - - - - -

**A/N: **_Finally! An update! I have summer classes and it's on a daily basis, so it's pretty hard to get updates done… After this chapter, I'll work with my other story. Read and Review! See ya guys… uhh… whenever!_


	10. Phase 09: Impending Darkness

New Guinea, Equatorial Union...

By a string of bad luck, mid-air attack and plain deviation from course, the Legacy ended up in the northernmost portion of the island of New Guinea, hundreds of kilometers away from his intended landing area, which was Carpentaria.

"This is too far off from Carpentaria... Maybe I should try flying there. According to recent reports, the Equatorial Union's been absorbed into the Earth Alliance again... If that's true, then I'm in the wrong place at the wrong time. It hasn't been long since then, so I doubt that there's any significant number of Alliance forces in this area." Shannon murmured as he checked his maps and his GPS.

"_It shouldn't be too hard to get myself out of here. I'll just fly off to Carpentaria and-!" _he thought as he throttled up, preparing to take-off. However, once he did, the cockpit was rocked by a small explosion and warnings appeared on his screen.

_LEFT WING UNUSEABLE. DAMAGE CRITICAL._

"Great... Just my luck." he sighed, "I guess I'll just have to walk..."

The Legacy's wings folded and he brought out one of his beam rifles, or in this case, cannons since they were just as strong as a ship's beam cannon. He carefully made his way down the slopes of the mountain on which he crashed, being very careful to hide his presence from the enemy, even to the extent that he turned off his transponders and leaving only basic radio communications. He put the Legacy on a controlled slide down the slopes, keeping his guard up in case of any confrontation. Halfway down, he reached an area of level ground with thick trees. He carefully crouched his unit under the canopy and got off. He brought out a pair of binoculars and walked towards the edge. Before he put the binoculars on his eyes, he was struck paralyzed by what he saw.

In front of him was probably the most serene scenery he had ever seen in his entire life. Below him and around him were nothing but greeneries, fogs and the sound of wildlife echoing through the valley. Above him was a clear blue sky, with only a few clouds scattered everywhere. The Sun was directly above him, and even so, he felt not the heat as he was under the cool shade of the forest trees. In his years as a soldier for ZAFT, he never thought that Earth itself was more beautiful than the artificial forests and bodies of water up in the PLANTs. Shaking off his nature-loving side, he put on the binoculars and scanned the area for a good route as well as any threat that he may encounter. He was pretty close to the sea, but since his Legacy was not fit for flight, he had no choice but to swim.

"_Well, I suppose I should at least hurry up and cross the border. I could call for help from Carpentaria and they'd be more capable of responding since it's international waters." _Shannon pondered to himself. He was about to get back into the Legacy but decided on taking a second look. It was, in his opinion, a decision that he would not regret. As he peered through the lens, he saw a small convoy of military hardware, with at least 5 tanks and 3 anti-air missile launchers, aside from about 4 trucks loaded with supplies and personnel.

"Crap..." Shannon grunted, putting himself flat to the ground and under the bushes. He observed and waited for a few minutes, hoping that they'd be gone in a few minutes. He was, however, greatly disappointed by what happened. The _little_ band of army men decided to set up camp right between him and the sea. "This is very annoying."

Hours passed and he was decided to get back to his Mobile Suit. He closed the cockpit and pulled out a little black box from underneath his seat, marked in black and yellow with the words OPEN IN CASE OF EMERGENCY. Seeing that his current situation was, in a way, an emergency since he was technically behind enemy lines, he opened the black box and pulled out its content.

"This is just what I need." he murmured, pulling out a sandwich 3-layers thick. He took a bite while turning the box around, reading what was written underneath: EMERGENCY RATIONS.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Unnamed City, Main Island, ORB Union...

Having about two days left before ORB's Chief Representative's deadline on the mechanics, the Legacy's crew has been given the time to wander around the city, each with a journey of his own. Silve decided to walk alone, while the Doctor and the Captain went out for dinner. Yuan and the two pilots of the Legacy stayed behind for some rest at Onogoro Island's beaches, along with some of the crew members of the Legacy. Mia, who was hoping to go with Silve to the city, was greatly disappointed when she discovered that Silve left an hour before she did. Currently, she was at the outskirts of the city, walking along the seawall while enjoying the evening sea breeze.

_FLASHBACK_

_Natalie took her precious time in her quarters to fix herself. With a certain someone's attention that she was hoping on grabbing, she had to look her best. She had to outshine the girls of ORB if she had to grab his attention._

"_I'll show you that you shouldn't take me for granted!" she angrily murmured as she put on her green blouse that had an opening that stretched about two inches below the collar line. She then put on her skirt which only went halfway from the hips to the knees and put on her sandals afterwards. She hurriedly ran outside and asked about Silve. In this case, it was the Captain, who herself had just finished changing into a semi-formal attire._

"_Captain... What are you...?"_

"_Oh? This? I'm going to the city with Doctor Amalfi. What about you? Aren't you going with someone? It's pretty lonely to go there by yourself." the Captain said while double-checking her black sweater's sleeves._

"_I... Umm... Speaking of which, have you seen Lieutenant Almana?" Natalie asked, her eyes rolling around uneasily knowing that she was blushing. The Captain knew, or at least she thought she did, where the conversation was heading and why she was looking for Silve. She smiled at Natalie._

"_As a matter of fact, I did. He went to the city almost an hour ago."_

"_WHAT?!" Natalie's scream echoed throughout the halls, gaining everyone's attention, and eventually, heads started popping out of the doors to see what the commotion was all about._

_END OF FLASHBACK_

Natalie sighed. There was no way she could've known Silve would leave that early. Right now, she was starting to regret having worn that attire. She wanted to grab his attention alone, but ended up getting the attention of a lot of men instead. She sighed once again and continued to walk with her head pointed downwards. She felt uneasy enough that she was being stared at, and it would make matters worse for her if she saw them doing so. Out of her paranoia and spacing out, she bumped into someone pretty hard, causing her to fall on her rear.

"Ouch... Watch where you're going!" she shouted at the person that she bumped into, only to realize that it was Silve, who in turn, was looking at her rather _peculiarly_. "What... What are you looking at?"

Without warning, Silve pulled her up and hugged her tight. She blushed immensely due to his sudden actions.

"What are you...?"

He never answered. He just hugged her. After about 2 minutes, he finally let go, immediately turning around after doing so. Natalie, on the other hand, could feel that her mind somehow stopped working for a few minutes and her face was starting to beat the red light. Since he chose to stayed silent, Natalie took it upon herself to know about what happened.

"Why did you do that?"

"Because..." Silve paused for a bit, then moving his head next to hers, putting his mouth very close to her ear. She could feel his breathing, and each breath sends chills down her spine.

"Because... What?"

"...I could see your underwear." Silve paused for a bit, waiting for a violent reaction which he knew was coming. As he thought, a violent reaction was indeed headed his way as Natalie grabbed him by the collar and pulled him forcefully towards her.

"You sicko! You did all that because you saw something?! And I thought you weren't like that! You are annoying and dense, but I never thought you'd be so low!" she yelled her heart out at him, yanking him back and forth in the process. Silve tried his best to remain calm, and spoke once she was done.

"A lot of guys were looking at you when you were on the ground. I did that to give them the impression that you're taken. Most of them quickly pretended that they didn't see anything once I gave them a stare while I was holding you." Silve smiled, "Forgive me if I was a bit... harsh."

Natalie sighed, both in relief and in disappointment. Relief because Silve wasn't as low as she thought he was, and that he didn't look at her that way. Disappointed because Silve did it to keep those stares away from her, and not something that he really meant.

"It's... alright. You did help me back then." Natalie rubbed her arm with her right hand, "So, what are you doing here? I thought you went to the city alone?"

"Yeah... I did." Silve replied, "I've done what I had to do... I was actually here a few hours earlier."

"What were you doing?"

"Watched the sunset." Silve answered, sounding like it was a daily routine for him. This got him a laugh from Natalie. He gave her a puzzled look before raising an eyebrow. "What?"

"I just didn't expect you to be so... sentimetal." Natalie giggled.

"What's so wrong with that?" Silve asked, not getting what Natalie was talking about nor why she was giggling.

"It's just that the guys I've encountered aren't men enough to admit such things. I can see that you're very different." Natalie, finally getting over her giggling fit, held on to Silve's shoulders for support.

"Oh... Okay. I suppose that's good." Silve simply scratched his head, not knowing what else to say, "Do you have anything to do tonight?"

"Not really. Yuan and the others have volunteered for maintenance work on our units so we won't have to come back there until tomorrow."

"Well, in that case..." Silve scratched his head again, getting him a puzzled look from Natalie.

About half an hour later, Natalie found herself in one of ORB's Information Center, where anyone was given access to a highspeed connection to the internet, approximately 3 times as fast as those that they had in their mobile phones. If she didn't know any better, ORB must have been using military technology to reach this level of connectivity.

"What exactly are we doing here?" Natalie asked. She had no clue why Silve brought her there. However, she also had no care why she was brought there. Time with him was good enough, wasn't it? She tried her best to maximize their time together, though the use of 2 separate workstations was a bit of a problem. Just as she was surfing for some trivial video, Silve called her and pointed towards his screen. He put his headset on her and pulled her closer to him let her see better.

In a few minutes, the video was over and Natalie was surprised when she realized that her head was already resting on Silve's shoulder. Hurriedly, but casually, she removed her headset and handed it to Silve, keeping her eyes on her monitor to hide her flushed face from him.

"T-thanks..." she murmured.

"Sure thing..." Silve replied with a smile. They both returned to their usual business on the Information Center. She had a hard time to read his mind, not knowing if he could see her just as a friend or he's somewhat attracted to her. Nonetheless, she decided to worry about that some other time. For now, all she wanted was to enjoy her time with him... with the person who she liked without warning. As a matter of fact, she doesn't know when she started liking him. The next thing she knew was what happened this afternoon, when she was trying her best to grab his attention.

"I don't even know what I liked about you... and now I don't know when I started liking you." she whispered to herself. Silve, clearly hearing what she said, decided to play along.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing... You left an hour earlier without even telling me? Some kind of partner you are." Natalie pouted and faced the other direction.

"What? What's that supposed to mean?" Silve asked, once again being on the slower side of the road.

"We're partners... We always launch together, right? I don't see how this is going to be any different."

"We're not charging into a battle, we're just going for some time-off." Silve quickly retorted. Noticing that her pout wasn't going anywhere, he heaved a sigh of defeat. "We'll to to the city together next time, if that's what you want. Geeez... I'm starting to forget who the superior officer is."

Natalie, on the other hand, grinned while facing away from Silve. _"One point for me!"_

- - - - - - - - - - -

Vosgulov-class submarine _Sphyma_, 20 miles away from ORB's Territorial Waters...

"This is the location of our target. We are to eliminate her as quickly as possible. We are to eliminate those that are watching over her as well. Operations would begin as shortly after Minerva leaves ORB. For now, we'll be waiting for updates from our covert operative. He'll be observing the target for a few days before he distances himself in order for us to move in." a ZAFT Green Coat discussed in their briefing room, turning on the lights and turning off the projector.

"What do we know so far?" another Green Coat asked.

"Our target is currently living at a small beach-side cottage. Currently, she is under the protection of who we believe to be the Desert Tiger and a few members of ORB's military."

Silence filled the room. Everyone looked at their own copies of their mission orders. Some of them believed it to be an overkill, being authorized to use Mobile Suits against an enemy possibly armed with nothing but assault rifles and handguns. Even so, this team of commandos, ZAFT's elite, have been given an order and they must accomplish it flawlessly and ruthlessly, without any witness.

- - - - - - - - - - -

_**A/N: **__Finally had the chance to make a new chapter. By tomorrow, classes will once again resume and I'll be on my final year in college. Hopefully, I'll have more time to update after graduating. See ya guys next time!_


	11. Phase 10: Another Identity

Undisclosed Location, Pacific Ocean...

Nearly a day passed. Neo and the Extendeds under his care were still on the Benilde waiting for their new 'recruit'. While all three were being put under _maintenance_, Neo was on the room that held Scarlet.

"You must have made a mistake. It's impossible for this girl to become the Ultimate Natural." Neo said, still in complete doubt about her abilities.

"No, it's not a mistake." the scientist quickly responded, "If you're saying this out of the fact that she's just a nurse working for the Red Cross, then you're wrong."

"What?" Neo flinched after getting an answer he never expected. "What's that supposed to mean? Are you saying that she's holding back her own abilities?"

"No. It's more likely that she never even used them thus far. Coordinators, specifically the 2nd Generation Coordinators, don't know what they're good at unless they try it. They don't know that they're good at running if they haven't ran before. It's just like a car as well. You won't know how well it could perform unless you drive it." the scientist paused, flipping open a screen, "Her reflexes should be greater than a normal person's. However, she hasn't been put into a situation where such quick reflexes are needed, and thus, she's unaware of that. Besides, even Coordinators must undergo training before their abilities could be of any use."

"Are you saying that she's capable of inhuman feats and she doesn't even know it? That's impossible."

"Tell me then, Colonel..." the scientist turned and faced Neo, "...What is your accuracy in shooting?"

"An average of 90." Neo quickly responded, not getting what the question was all about.

"Is that so? Then how did you find out about that?" the scientist grinned. He knew Neo wasn't stupid, though he knew that his beliefs are hard to be swayed. Neo's face had surprised painted all over it.

"...by shooting." Neo said, finally accepting that his belief was wrong for this situation, "I understand. So, what do you plan on doing with her?"

"As Lord Djibril ordered, we are to recondition her mentally. Unlike your three pawns, this one doesn't need any physical conditioning." the scientist turned around and started to type on his computer, "We'll put her into a combat situation and see how she reacts. Only then can we verify if these genes are telling the truth or if they are just something she's carrying around."

"What? Combat already? Shouldn't you give her a shot at the simulator first?"

"Well, it is reasonable since she's never piloted a Mobile Suit before. But I'll just condition her mind into that of a Mobile Suit pilot. I'll teach her in her sleep." the scientist smirked, booting up the program that allowed them to alter a person's memory.

- - - - - - -

New Guinea, Equatorial Union...

Having waited for more almost a day, Shannon's path was finally cleared since the convoy had left while he was still sleeping. Even so, he took extra precaution before he booted up the Legacy's GUNDAM OS. He put it in standby mode to asses the situation he was in, and to see if he had enough firepower to fight off at least a small regiment of Mobile Suits or fighters.

"_Two plasma beam cannons, 4 DRAGOON pods, two hybrid beam cannons, two railguns, two beam sabers and... What's this?"_

He stared at the data on his screen, and what he saw was far from believable. On the Legacy's back was mounted a duplicate of the Astray's Tactical Arms. He saw it in action in the previous war, and he definitely know how it can be used as both a sword and a gun turret. However, he did not understand how Legacy would have such a weapon, or how ZAFT got data on the Tactical Arms in the first place. Nonetheless, he considered his weapons to be _adequate_, and he slowly made his way down the mountain. Putting all his sensors into passive mode, and turning off anything that transmitted something that could give him away to the enemy, he was practically hidden. Halfway down, he turned on his Phase Shift Armor to prepare for any unexpected attack. Having reached the bottom of the mountain, he still had no encounter with any hostile forces. Fearing the worst due to the unusual silence, he put the Legacy into the water and activated his thrusters. While it was true that his thrusters had enough power to fly him all the way to Carpentaria, the loss of his left wing meant that he'll have a harder time controlling his flight and more strain would be put on the right wing.

As he shot through the water, tens of meters under sea level, he realized that the strain on his right wing was far greater here than above water. However, since it did not have to generate any lift, folding it should not be a problem. He folded the wings and accelerated towards the nearest patch of Australian land. However, before he got out of Equatorial Union's territorial waters, alarms started ringing all around him. He turned on his systems and put them into active mode. The Legacy's eyes lit up and faced the torpedoes that were heading towards him. He first fired the CIWS mounted on the Legacy's head, only to realize that the range was almost brought down to zero. With the torpedoes closing in on him really fast, he stepped on the throttle and jumped out of the water, causing all torpedoes to miss him completely. Just as he was about to let out a sigh of relief, his alarms were at it again, and this time, it was because of hordes of anti-air missiles coming from ships. To make matters worse, at least 2 squadrons of Windams were making their way towards him.

"_This must be the fleet that was rumored to attack Carpentaria..._" he thought,bringing out both his beam sabers. He fired his CIWS at a bunch of missiles heading his way, taking out one or two, and their fragments destroying the missiles close to them. Upon clearing a path, he charged through and hacked his way through a couple of Windams, with the anti-air missiles closely tailing him. He passed through two of the Windams, and it was them that got the hit from the missiles. He then continued to charge into the squad of Windams, deploying his Balaena plasma beam cannons and fired ahead. The Windams effectively dodged his shots since he was still quite far away. However, as they moved aside, multiple shots from his railguns nailed a number of Windams, not expecting another attack to come so soon. He continued his charge through the incoming Windams and dodged their heavy assault, even if a number of shots still got to him. A couple of shots got rid of his wings, and his Balaenas, while another beam fire slightly grazed the Legacy's main body, causing slight damage that exposed some of the unit's internal mechanisms. In response, he slashed through more Windams, cutting through them only once, but effectively cutting them in half. Explosions set off wherever he passed as one Windam exploded after another and debris was literally raining on the seas. With less than a kilometer from the enemy fleet, he became even more determined to charge through. If he could just take out an essential part of this fleet, then the attack on Carpentaria would be delayed, if not canceled. Keeping that as his goal, he put away his beam sabers and brought out both of his hybrid beam cannons, like those of the Verde Buster's, but detached from the main body and attached only by a wire that connected to the powerplant. He fired two consecutive shots at the second squadron of Windams, hoping to pull off the same trick as he did earlier. However, as he expected, the enemy would not fall for the same trick twice. After firing his railguns, he accelerated and, when at point-blank, aimed the cannons directly on their cockpits. Seeing that he was armed with ranged weapons, some of the Windams closed in on him with beam sabers. Without enough time to switch to melee weaponry, he took his cannons and smashed the Windams at random, using those cannons as some sort of giant hammer. At least 5 Windams surrounded him, slashing him randomly from multiple directions. He countered by hitting the Windam in front of him with his cannon, then pointing them at opposite directions on his sides and shot, taking out another 2 units. Another Windam came from above and tried to slash him downwards, but he managed to move back with his railguns deployed, firing as soon as it got in front of him. The 4th Windam threw an armor penetrating Stilleto at him, so he backflipped to avoid the incoming projectiles, though while he was flipping, a beam saber attack from the same unit got rid of the Legacy's right leg.

"Now would be a good time to see what you've got." Neo said, with his line open to all his nearby allied units and vessels, "Send her out. I'll be fighting too, to see how good this guy is."

Panels opened on the left side of the carrier, with one regular Windam and a custom colored Windam walking out and preparing for battle. The custom colored Windam was piloted by Neo Roanoke himself, this being his first battle in his newly delivered unit.

"Let's go, Leah." Neo said, taking off ahead of the other Windam, referring to Leah, who was also known as Scarlet Aeternam. With her memory rewritten, she was given a new name to match her new personality. Leah Fortescue was her new name, her new identity.

"Coming." Leah answered, pushing the throttle and taking off right behind Neo's Windam.

Meanwhile, Shannon was disposing off the remaining Windams when they did something he never expected. 3 of them latched on to him like leeches, not letting go no matter how extreme the maneuvers he did were. Without any other option, he activated the Legacy's own Tactical Arms, which he named Excelsior, and fired its gatling gun, piercing through the Windam that was attached to his back. The Windam fell off and exploded just a few meters behind him, damaging a large part of the wings. He then turned the Legacy's head to another of his leeches, firing the CIWS and exhausting it of its payload to get rid of the Windam attached to his left arm. The Windam exploded while still attached to him, but thanks to Phase Shift Armor, the left arm sustained minimal damage. The Windam's arm eventually fell off the Legacy's left arm, and this gave him better mobility. He returned the hybrid cannon to its waist-mount and pulled out one of his beam sabers. He drove it through the remaining Windam's head and down to its cockpit. The Windam's grip loosened, and it fell off like a rock, exploding after hitting the water. With still a few Windams to worry about, Shannon deployed his railguns again, then brought out his hybrid cannons. Though without his Balaenas, he still had plenty of firepower to take out the remaining Windams in one go, at least, that's what he thought. A spherical panel appeared in front of him, with tiny dots appearing everywhere, representing the targets' position with respect to the Legacy. The computer automatically targetted each Windam and locked on to them. Just as he was about to fire, a couple of shots took out both of his hybrid cannons, which in turn exploded and added further damage into the arms.

"What the-!" Shannon turned the Legacy and looked at the incoming Windams, the beam fire most probably coming from the purple unit. He then noticed that the purple unit stopped halfway, leaving only the other Windam to head for the Legacy. "A single unit? I guess they have an ace in there."

Without a thought, the two Mobile Suits charged at each other. Drawing out his remaining beam saber, Shannon parried a beam saber attack from the Windam, locking in each other in a struggle between swords. Leah, however, brought out the other beam saber and was about to slash off the Legacy's arm had Shannon not pulled away and veered to his left, narrowly dodging the attack. However, Leah resorted to ramming him with her shield and Mobile Suit, temporarily stunning him and making him lose grip of his beam saber. As he fell to the sea, shots were fired at him from both Windams, as well as unloading all their missile payload on him. Using the sword's broad body as a shield, he withstood most of the attack for the price of his gatling gun, which was unprotected by the sword's solid blades. He took to the skies once again, and though without a wing, flight was not very troublesome since he had lost quite a lot of weight, like his wings and legs. He quickly approached Leah's Windam, smashing it with the Excelsior's broad side, as if he was hitting a fly with a fly swatter. He turned his attention on Neo's Windam next, charging at him with his sword ready to cut a Mobile Suit in half.

"What the-?" Neo was caught by surprise as Shannon's gigantic sword cleaved off his Windam's left arm. "Where is he getting all his energy? He's fighting with a heavily damaged Mobile Suit..."

Shannon moved in for the kill, with the sword quickly closing in on Neo's cockpit. As he was about to nail the finishing blow, his attack was deflected when Leah kicked the blade upward, and cut the purple Windam's head instead of its torso. He twisted the sword a bit and went for a downward strike instead, but this time, it was kicked to the left. Leah lunged in for a piercing strike, aimed just below the cockpit, when Neo suddenly called out to her, stopping the attack a meter away from contact.

"Leah, a Fleet from Carpentaria is headed this way. It would be better off to leave him for now." Neo said, "Let's get back for now."

"Understood." Leah whispered, returning her beam saber to its mount. She turned the unit around and slowly flew back to the carrier, all the while staring at the Legacy, which greatly resembled the Freedom.

Shannon wondered what caused the pilot to hesitate, then abort the attack. A small window appeared on the right side of his screen, showing a small Fleet from Carpentaria coming from the horizon. A few seconds later, a communications screen appeared.

"_SHANNON STEYR OF FAITH, THIS IS THE ALPHA FLEET FROM CARPENTARIA. CHAIRMAN DULLINDAL HAS SENT US TO YOUR AID, SAYING THAT YOU MAY HAVE ENCOUNTERED HOSTILE FORCES ON YOUR WAY."_

"On my way?" Shannon cupped his chin, _"Is he talking about the Earth Forces, or that black Mobile Suit?"_

"Roger that." Shannon responded, gently putting the Legacy in the water.

- - - - - - -

_**A/N: **__Here's Chapter 11... Within a Chapter or two, the Legacy (ship) will meet up with either one of its counterparts. That's it for now. R&R! I'll post a summarized list of modified characters and OCs that I've made after Chapter 15, along with additional tech specs for the other units that have appeared by then._


	12. Phase 11: Moment of Truth?

ZAFT Carpentaria Base, continental Australia...

The Legacy was undergoing major repairs in the base and Shannon was, out of boredom, contemplating on what the unknown unit was.

"_No radar detection, high-altitude flight. Those are something that's not seen on a normal Mobile Suit, or any Mobile Suit for that matter."_ he thought, staring at the Legacy from quite a distance.

Breaking his train of thoughts, one of the mechanic working on the Legacy approached him.

"We're going to need your signature here." the mechanic handed him the electronic tablet, "It's an order request for parts. The main body was fixed by the parts readily available, but the wings and weapons needed special-order parts straight from PLANT."

"I see." Shannon took the tablet and signed, "How long does the processing of request and delivery take, all in all?"

"About a week at worst."

"Okay. Thank you."

In the middle of it all, Carpentaria's base alarm rang.

"_THIS BASE IS PUT ON FULL ALERT. REPEAT, THIS BASE IS PUT ON FULL ALERT. ALL BASE DEFENSE SQUADRONS ARE PUT ON STAND-BY."_

"What the heck is going on?" Shannon grabbed the mechanic by the collar and forcefully demanded an answer. The mechanic, on the other hand, did not have the answer and, as comically unfit as it was, passed out. A passing pilot stopped by, overhearing his question.

"PLANT's been the object of a nuclear attack. Our defense forces have successfully warded off the attack and no missile hit. However, this was deemed by the Chairman as an open declaration of war, and has put us in full alert for a retaliatory strike or defensive measures."

"I see. Take me to a Mobile Suit. I'm ordering you as a member of FAITH, and by the authority given to me by the Chairman." Shannon commanded. The pilot stood still for a moment, stared at his badge, then responded.

"Yes, sir. We've received a memo regarding the formation of FAITH a while back. Please, do what you need to do."

The pilot then led him to a Slash ZAKU, a spare unit of one of the base's interception squadrons.

"I see. Thank goodness for the memo." Shannon shook his head in disbelief before putting his helmet back on and getting on board the light-blue Slash ZAKU. Though it was a reserve unit, the events in space led to all units of ZAFT to be put in battle status. This was in preparation for any follow-up attack by the Alliance on all ZAFT territories, in space and on Earth alike.

On that day, however, the morale of the Earth Alliance Forces was greatly damaged by the degree of failure in their planned attack on PLANT. All planned attacks on ZAFT's Earth territory didn't occur for the time being, and ZAFT's soldiers were able have a sense of relief that they were spared from battle at least for a day.

- - - - - - -

Onogoro Island, ORB Union...

It was late at night, and with the move that the Earth Alliance has done against PLANT, ORB was on an edge in beefing up its military, partially because of defense from potential attack and partially because of ORB's nearing agreement with the Alliance. However, in an attempt not to raise alarm among the citizens and not to arouse suspicion from the Attha loyalists, it was done with as much subtlety as possible. While unnoticed by ordinary citizens, soldiers on the other hand knew what it all meant without having a single memo passed around. Of course, this includes foreign military, who by the movement of the local military and by the news coming from outside, immediately understood the confusion that was not only engulfing ORB, but the whole world.

"Sound like trouble." Silve smirked, looking around the area, taking note of a few individuals and some of the soldiers that were on _duty _at that time.

"It's not exactly comforting to see soldiers instead of the police on the streets." Natalie sighed, walking closer and closer to Silve. Of course, this didn't go unnoticed.

"What? You're intimidated by these guys already? You don't sound like a soldier to me." he replied, adding a tone of mockery to his remark.

"Oh shut up, will you?" she replied with an elbow to his side. He winced, but smiled anyway, even though his eyebrow was twitching.

"Anyway, shouldn't we try to lose these guys now? It's starting to get awkward."

"Like pesky guardians on a date, huh?" she blushed while hiding her face away from his view. "But still, if we take them on now, the two of us, not to mention the entire Legacy, would be in deep trouble."

"I know." Silve scratched his head before grabbing Natalie's hand and dragging her, "Let's hurry!"

Without objection, but with a blush appearing on her face, Natalie followed Silve and tried to keep up with his pace. Not surprisingly, two or three people followed them. Silve led them all into a park, where he jumped behind a bush and dragged her with him. With the bushes elevated a bit, Silve could see the feet of the people following them as they walked around in circles looking for the _couple_. Silve was flat on his back keeping his eyes on their feet while Natalie was on all fours, inches away on top of Silve. One of their pursuers started walking towards their direction, and with the bush being pretty short, Natalie was in danger of being spotted. Running out of ideas, he put his arms around her waist and rather forcefully dragged her down. This earned him a surprised gasp from Natalie.

"What are you doing? Let me go you moron!" she protested, trying to struggle her way out of his grip. Though her voice was low, it was slowly getting louder as she grunted and kept struggling.

"Shh!" Silve's voice was in as low as he could manage, "Quiet! They'll find us!"

"I said let me go you idiot! Take your arms o--"

Natalie's voice that was getting louder and louder per word that she uttered was brought to a screeching halt. With his hands full keeping her down, the only thing he was able to use to cover her mouth was his. In shock and in a daze, Natalie's eyes widened, before softening, and eventually it was no longer a move to keep her quiet; she was kissing him. Her entire body relaxed with some light trembling on her hands, but she stayed that way, her eyes closed and her face red as a tomato, though the blush goes unnoticed thanks to the darkness. Luckily for them, the pursuers didn't hear her voice, which stopped before it became audible to them. However, they kept looking around leaving no room for them to move from their current position. Upon realizing what she was doing, Natalie quickly pulled her lips away from his and just lowered her head and rested her chin on his shoulder. The two of them stayed at that position for about five minutes before the guys that followed them decided to move on. They waited for a few moments after the _stalkers _left before they sat up. Natalie, while still in a daze, decided to cover up.

"What did you do that for?!" she yelled at him while keeping her gaze away from him.

"You wouldn't shut up!" Silve's eyebrow twitched as he heard her complain. Natalie suddenly stayed quiet, and Silve followed suit. After a few seconds, Natalie decided to speak up and break the silence.

"W-why were they following us?"

"I honestly don't know." he replied as he fell on his back and stared at the night sky. "But I think they were sent to keep tabs on our ship's crew. If that ZAFT ship's still here, I assume their crew is also getting the same treatment."

"I see. But why would they do that?"

"I guess some people in ORB's military, or administration, are hoping to be in the good graces of the Alliance."

"But what would they get from keeping tabs on us? I'd understand if it was ZAFT, but us?" Natalie finally faced Silve. He sat up and greeted her with a smile, so she blushed and turned away again. "What are you smiling at?"

"I'm always smiling." he answered, "Anyway, I guess they're following us simply because we're EU. We're like a runaway part of EA."

"I guess you have a point." she sighed, taking her turn to lie on the grass and stare at the stars. "Somehow, those stars seem more beautiful from down here than from space."

"That's not the only thing that's beautiful." Silve lied down next to Natalie, staring up as well, with a more natural smile on his face. Natalie blushed on this remark, however, Silve was quick to ruin the moment. "The Moon's beautiful too, isn't it?"

While annoyed and disappointed, she simply sighed and looked at the sky. Her eyes widened when she realized what was in front of her: a sky without a Moon. She immediately turned to him and was about to make a comment when she saw that he was already on his feet, offering her a hand.

"Come on. Let's go back to the ship."

Heaving another sigh, she took his hand and stood up. After dusting themselves, they began the quiet walk back to the ship. Silve's smile was back to normal while Natalie had a confused look on her face as she stared at his back.

"Walk beside me, will you? You're not my follower." Silve grinned and grabbed her hand, dragging her next to him.

"AH!" she yelped and glared at him without a moment to lose. "You don't have to drag me, you know!"

"I wasn't dragging you, you were just too slow!" he quickly replied. Natalie was about to say something else, but upon noticing that he was holding her hand, just smiled.

"Just don't drag me again."

"I said I wasn't dragging you!"

- - - - - - -

Legacy's bridge, Morgenroete Inc. underwater hangar...

"What's the ship's status?" the Captain immediately asked the moment she set foot on the bridge.

"The ship's ready, repairs have been done and resupplying has been completed." Legacy's on-duty pilot replied while reading through a hard copy of the to-do list. "All we need is to get all crew members on board and we'll be ready to launch."

"Alright. Send a message to all crew members, inform them that everyone must be on board within 24 hours. We'll leave on the first minute after that 24 hours. Please inform Representative Attha as well."

"Aye aye, Captain."

- - - - - - -

**A/N: **At long last, I updated!


	13. Phase 12: Preparing for the Inevitable

Underwater hangar, Morgenroete Inc...

The Legacy's crew was busy loading the additional supply that they got from Morgenroete, including a pair of new M1F Astray F which were actually set for delivery the following week had the Equatorial Union not aligned itself with the Alliance. The units, F21 and F22, still had no pilots but were being loaded anyway. Handling the paperwork was Colonel Benthal, working on behalf of the EU.

"I guess that's that." Cheska signed on a tablet and handed it to a brown haired woman. Her marigold eyes looked at the tablet and looked back at the Legacy's Captain.

"That's that. Well, I guess you're all set to go, Captain." the person who introduced herself as Maria Vernes said, putting the tablet under her arm.

"Yeah. Thanks. We'll be leaving as soon as the entire crew is on board the ship."

"I see. I hope you pay us a visit again once all this is over." Maria smiled, turning her back and walking away. Cheska did the same, but after a few steps, she stopped and turned her head.

"I'm sure the entire crew would love a vacation here once all this is over..." she looked forward again and continued walking, murmuring with a smile, "...Captain."

Maria's eyes widened. She stopped and immediately turned. "How did you...?"

Cheska, on the other hand, did not reply. She just continued walking without even turning or stopping. She just waved her hand and disappeared behind one of the Legacy's doors. All Maria could do was stare in amazement and heave a sigh before she turned around and resumed her walk away from the hangar.

- - - - - - -

Seiran Residence, ORB Union...

"Looks like some people are aware of our surveillance activities." an unidentified soldier reported.

"These were the ones that escaped, right?"

"Yes. We've lost track of them in a park. The crew from the Minerva don't seem aware about the surveillance, but I think they're just playing along."

"Playing along? You failed at observing two measly kids and now you're assuming that the Coordinators are unaware?" a furious Yuna screamed and threw chairs at the helpless soldier, who could do nothing but dodge. "For all we know, those two could be working for ZAFT as spies! Didn't you even consider that they arrived as backup for those Coordinators?"

"Sir, based on information that we have gathered, they are from the Equatorial Union. Also, those that are currently working with them are loyal to the Attha family."

Yuna's eyebrow twitched upon hearing the name. All he could do was put his hand the pile of paper on the desk and crumpled it under his hand. "So they're pretty much untouchable?"

"Yes. It seems that these guys have a greater amount of administrative protection than the Minerva."

"That's troublesome. Just keep your eyes on them as much as you can. Leave the information that you've gathered there. You may leave."

"Yes, sir." the soldier saluted and left, closing the door behind him. Yuna stayed silent for a few moments before throwing random things that he picked up on the table.

"Damn it! Why is everyone around that girl this troublesome?!"

- - - - - - -

Unspecified location, Onogoro Island, ORB Union...

"Sooner or later, we'll have to pack up and leave." a certain brown haired pilot said while his gaze was directed at the sunset on the horizon. "I just hope we're all wrong and it turns out that we're just thinking too much."

"But from the looks of things, it's not as far-fetched as you think." a man with a scar running though his unusable left eye replied, "Right now, we have both a ZAFT and EU warship in our docks. Both of them will have to leave soon. As a matter of fact, the EU ship will be leaving shortly. I think it would only be a matter of time before we have to take flight."

The much younger pilot kept quiet, keeping his eyes out into the ocean.

"Whatever the case, you'll have to keep an eye on your sister. She's definitely in greater stress than the entire Archangel's crew combined. Go speak with her once in a while, okay Kira?"

"Yeah." Kira turned his head and smiled.

- - - - - - -

ZAFT Carpentaria Base, continental Australia...

Shannon was inside the Legacy's cockpit, doing a routine system check on his unit. While his suit was generally repaired, he was still unable to fly since the parts from PLANT are yet to arrive. With what was reported to be a large-scale military move coming their way, Shannon was aware that the parts could take longer than expected to arrive. As such, he _asked_ the mechanics to modify the wings for easy removal and reattachment. Of course, this was extremely hard since the Legacy's wings were initially meant to be attached permanently. However, since it wasn't impossible, the maintenance crew had no choice but to follow his orders. No battle has occurred yet, all units were in battle-ready status and no repairs were being made to Carpentaria's units. For the first 12 hours, they have successfully removed the wings and installed the hardpoints on the suit's back for its re-installation, which were actually the hardpoints from a ZAKU. With that, they moved to the harder part, which involves the modification of the wings, its repair, the attachment of hardpoints and installation of a docking mechanism.

"_How am I supposed to fight if I'm needed?"_ Shannon sighed, giving the screen a troubled look. Being content with what he has done with the system, he left the cockpit and took a walk around the base. He first went to the tarmac by the sea. He walked all the way to the farthest point and looked stared into the horizon. _"What is it with people and staring into the horizon? Doing so myself, I still don't get it."_

Before he could sigh, the loud thrusters of a Mobile Suit roared as it passed over him from behind. He followed it with his stare as it turned around and landed near where he was standing. Upon closer inspection, it was a ZGMF-X2000 GOUF Ignited with a few modifications. Among the modifications are the addition of a second _eye _and electronics warfare pods mounted on the wingtips. Painted in a black and azure scheme, it had X2000E/A printed on its shoulder armor and on its shield, with the head of a hawk printed above it. Its pilot got off the cockpit while holding on the cable that lowered her down. Wait. Her?!

Shannon walked closer to the unit, and as soon as the pilot's feet touched the ground, he arrived. The pilot, who was wearing a red flight suit, stopped and looked at him for a moment, before saluting at Shannon. Shannon, on the other hand, squinted in a seemingly fruitless effort to see through the helmet's heavily tinted glass.

"If you wouldn't mind, I think you should remove your helmet." he said, giving her the same stoic look he usually has. The other pilot didn't say a word. She just removed her helmet and her long blond hair fell to her waist. She held her helmet in her arms and gave Shannon an equally stoic look.

"There."

While Shannon's face remained compose, he couldn't stop the blush that formed on his face. Somehow, he knew he was stunned by her beauty. However, his mind remained intact and approached the female pilot.

"You are...?"

"I'm Claire DeLune."

"Sounds like a musical piece."

"I know."

As they were both talking, others near them, including the team sent to retrieve the GOUF and put it into the hangar were astounded by what they're witnessing.

"Is that even a conversation?" one of the maintenance crew loudly asked.

"I have no idea." another member of the maintenance crew said. "I can't believe they're speaking to each other in that monotone."

"I guess it takes a weird person to understand another weird person."

The two of them never paid attention to the little talk that was brewing itself under the GOUF. Keeping their focus on the person in front, they seemed to have existed in a little world of their own.

"I'm surprised you came to talk to me directly." Claire finally broke the straight face and displayed a small but gentle smile.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Shannon's face, on the other hand, remained straight. However, the blush returned as soon as he saw her smile. _"Cute."_

"I was supposed to find you. You don't have a ship to report to, so the Chairman thought you might need a wingman."

"A wingman, huh?" the tense atmosphere around them was dispersed and finally a more relaxed one took its place. Even so, their formal and serious expressions stayed. "And if I refuse?"

"You can't refuse, sir. Not after the Chairman's personal orders that I be assigned under you."

"What if I order you to return to PLANT, using my authority as a member of FAITH?"

"I believe the Council's and the Chairman's authority is above those of the members of FAITH." she confidently replied as she drew herself closer to him and stood next to Shannon. "If you have no further objections, I think it's time for us to properly know each other. I don't think you're willing to work with a _total stranger_."

Shannon heard the change of tone in the last two words of what she said.

"Does that mean you know me from somewhere?" Shannon's straight face was finally broken.

"I have no idea." she winked at him. He blushed, this time, with a matching facial expression. Her face shifted from teasing to a seriously disappointed expression. "I'll just leave that to you. Get me court marshalled if you plan on using your authority to make me spill."

"I won't." he rolled his eyes towards her, his straight face returning. "Come on, Claire. Let's go."

"Yes, sir."

And just like that, as if nothing happened, they walked off deeper into the base.

- - - - - - -

Eastern Naval Defense Fleet, Pacific Ocean, Equatorial Union...

On board one of the few carriers of the Equatorial Union, the 3 highest officers in its Armed Forces were holding a meeting. Also present were the first five of the Astray F squadron and the commander of the fleet.

"We've received word that the Alliance will be launching an attack on ZAFT's bases here on Earth. It's pretty obvious that ZAFT will do something about it. This translates to the probability of us being sent off to who knows where to fight against ZAFT." the Grand General stated while walking around the desk where everyone was sitting. "We, like the other neutral nations, prefer not to interfere in the conflict of others. However, for the sake of the people, the Union has joined the Alliance and now has a commitment to those guys."

"Now do you guys know why we called you here?" the High Admiral asked, turning his head from one side of the table to the other. Getting no response, he rolled his eyes and stood up. "You see, because of our _commitment _to the Alliance, it's not impossible for your squadron to be sent as part of the strike force on the ZAFT bases. The three of us have thought long and hard about this, and we've come up with a solution."

"Pray tell, sir." F03 pilot Malkiel Villamor said, being unusually impatient.

"We're going to divide the Astray squadron into four teams. One of the teams will only have two members because their destination already has two units, F21 and F22." the High Admiral continued.

"F21 and F22? Aren't those units still at ORB?"

"Yes, they are. But they'll be off soon. Thats why we'll be sending F01 and F05. That would be Lancris and Clarris." the Navarch finally spoke.

"Why us?" the ever uptight Tatiana broke her silence.

"Well, as the overall leader of the Astray Squadron, you're most suited for this particular assignment. Clarris would be coming with you since... Well..." the High Admiral scratched his head as he imagined what would happen if a different pilot went with her. He thought that if it was Tatiana and Anane that went as a team, she'd probably shoot him first before they attack the enemy. If it was Tatiana and Malkiel, they might end up handling half of the enemy each, but they would definitely fail in backing each other up if the need arises. This led to the scenario where Tatiana and Narelle would be sent instead. They were pretty close to each other, and backing up each other would not be a problem. It was also an impossibility for them to shoot each other. The same could be said for Malkiel and Anane, who act more like brothers than friends, hence they would be teamed up instead. Heaving a sigh, he continued. "...let's just say you teaming up with Clarris is the most logical thing to do. This either means that Malkiel and Anane will team up or they will both lead a team of their own."

Excited by the prospect of going into something like an adventure with his bestfriend, Anane bolted up with a huge smile on his face. "So, in short, we'll be going places?"

"Exactly." Tatiana replied, shooting a glare at Anane's direction.

"So it's like a literal _tour _of duty?" he replied, shrugging off the glare that was being aimed at him.

"You could say that." the silent Malkiel replied with a smile. "We'll be on duty and having fun at the same time."

"Malkiel, why are you always on his side?" Tatiana frowned.

"I'm not on anyone's side. It's just that being too serious is a health hazard. With that attitude, you might find yourself in a retirement home by the time you're 40." Malkiel, having said something that should sound like a joke, ended up saying it as though he was dead serious.

"WHAT? You're one to talk! With an attitude like his, you'd find yourself in a mental institute within 100 days!" the fuming Tatiana yelled, referring to the laid back character of Anane. After realizing that she just blew her top in front of the 3 highest officials in the Union, she blushed in embarassment. "Pardon me, sirs. I'll be off to prepare for the assignment. Let's go, Narelle."

"Y-yes!" Narelle, who got caught up with watching the scene unfold, was pulled back to reality and followed Tatiana away from the room after she excused herself. As the other pilots also excused themselves, the three officials just stared at each other awkwardly.

"I feel like I have 20 kids." the Grand General scratched his head.

"And to boot, there's three of us." the High Admiral sighed.

"It's like getting married all over again." the Navarch complained. The other two looked at him suspiciously, and as he raised his eyebrow to question their motives for looking at him like that, they ended up bickering like kids. After tiring themselves out after almost an hour of arm locks, head locks and leg locks, the three of them fell on their seats, looked at each other, and laughed at how foolish they acted.

"It's nice to act like a kid every once in a while." the High Admiral smiled at the other two.

"I know." the other two answered in unison. With the mood returning to normal, they got back to business.

"So, how's the pilot of F02?" the Navarch asked upon remembering that only four of the first five were present during the meeting.

"He's still MIA. It's been more or less two years now. At that time, there was a skirmish at the northern border near the Republic of East Asia. While the three Astray Fs that were stationed there had a technological advantage, their lack of experience and their disadvantage in numbers nearly cost them their lives. F01, F02 and F04 were at their limits, and so were the pilots. While they were retreating, F02's pilot suddenly stopped falling back and engaged the enemy. F01 and F04, on the other hand, had no choice but to retreat given the fact that they were in worse condition that Unit F02." the High Admiral sadly recalled the events of that day.

"By the time another team of three Astray Fs and two fighter squadrons got there, it was too late. The remnants of the F02 were scattered all over the place, with its body turned into Swiss cheese by beam sabers. The pilot's body, however, was never found. About ten kilometers south of that, we found F01 and F04 lying on the ground without power. Their pilots were also unconscious and have sustained multiple injuries. Without the body to confirm it, F02's pilot is still considered MIA." the Grand General continued the story. "While they had backup, it served nothing more than an annoyance. The ground units there were of minimal effect, so it wasn't of any help to the three of them."

"And so, the designation F02 was retired and reserved, not for the destroyed unit, but for the downed pilot, huh? That's quite an honor, regardless of how dramatic it may sound." the Navarch concluded their little history lesson. "If only the Cobalt Blue and the other two have been available back then, we might have saved him."

"But it was the reason why we got the Cobalt Blue, the Black Frame and the White Frame. It's also the reason for the Azure Strike and the Legacy. All that because we were powerless. In a mere skirmish, we lost a very fine warrior and risked the lives of two others. But even with all that, we couldn't stop the Union from falling into the hands of the Alliance."

Soon after that, the room was filled with deafening silence. They were all looking at the floor pondering upon the fate of not only the Union, but the individuals that fight for it. Somehow sharing a common thought, they all looked up at the ceiling and sighed. "This sucks."

- - - - - - -

**A/N: **_I guess that explains a number of stuff, such as how they got a battleship of Legacy's caliber and a handful of Mobile Suits. As with all stories, more explanations can come as the chapters pass. That's it for now!_


	14. Phase 13: Operation Spear of Twilight

Morgenroete Inc., ORB Union...

"I guess it's goodbye for now." the Legacy's captain offered her hand to shake.

"I guess it is." ORB's Chief Representative took the offer. "Where will you be going after this?"

"We'll head to the Marshall Islands to pick up reinforcements from the Union. After that, we'll probably head off to the Arctic. We'll be going around Africa to get there. It's the best option we have, for we'll be dangerously close to both the Atlantic and Eurasian Federation if we went directly."

"Before you go, there's something I must return to you." Cagalli signaled the guards stationed at Mobile Suit gate. The large gates opened and a familiar Mobile Suit came in, being dragged behind a truck on a large open container.

"Isn't that the X104?" the Captain stepped away from Cagalli and walked towards the white Blitz.

"It is." Cagalli then gave the signal, prompting the truck to drive into the Legacy. As the truck and the Blitz disappeared into the ship, Cagalli returned to business, which in this case was seeing the Legacy off. "Well, I wish you the best. Once this is all over, I'd like to see you guys back here and you all can have a proper vacation."

"We'll be looking forward to that. It would be great if you could pay us a visit too."

"I'll talk to my brother about it." Cagalli smiled, "But until then, I hope we make it through this. Us and our nations."

"I sincerely hope so." Cheska smiled back. "Once again, thank you very much for your help."

"You're welcome."

Their conversation came to an end, and the both of them returned to their jobs. Cagalli went on her way to the Administration building and Cheska returned to the Legacy's bridge.

- - - - - - -

Legacy's Bridge...

Cheska looked around as she stood next to her seat. While some were pretty busy, the others had time to turn around and looked back at the Captain.

"How's the pre-flight check?" the Captain checked the status as she took her place.

"We're ready to go. All gates and doors are closed. Watertight compartments and bulkheads are sealed, flight controls are on peak condition and weapons system are primed."

"Looks like we're ready to go. What's the word from Morgenroete?"

"Flooding sequence will start in t-minus 30 seconds. Evacuation of the dock has been completed, and once its completely flooded, the gates will be opened. We'll be taking it from there." Zeal completed his report and put his hands on the ship's controls. For the next few seconds, everyone grew silent and waited for the flooding to begin. In a short while, it started right on schedule, although it was taking agonizingly long even though it was a mere 60 seconds. Once the flooding completed, the gates opened just as planned.

"Activate anti-gravity levitators and release the restraining arms. Once the arms are completely folded, we'll slowly move forward."

And so it happened. The levitators were activated and the weight of the Legacy was lifted from the levitators. The loss of the load triggered the restraining arms' automatic response, folding into the walls and hiding in the panels on the walls.

"Flooding is complete and restraining arms have folded." the other pilot of the Legacy, Yohnes, reported.

"Alright. Increase thrust from zero to ten percent. Activate the Phase Shift Armor. Legacy, head out!" the Captain's feminine booming voice echoed throughout the entire bridge. Strangely, Cheska ended up being both the Captain and Vice Captain of the ship since no one was assigned for the Vice Captain since the beginning, so not only was she in charge of taking command of the ship, she also has to to the job of shouting the orders so that everyone would hear it. The pilots complied with the order, changing the ship's color from its dull metallic color to its Phase Shift-induced color and brought the Legacy to a slow crawl out of the underwater hangar. After passing a couple of gates, the Legacy entered the sea and left behind the closing gates of Morgenroete.

"We're completely out of Morgenroete."

"Increase thrust to forty percent and go around ORB's main island. We're heading for the Marshall Islands!"

"Roger!" the two pilots answered in unison. The throttle was moved forward and the Legacy began accelerating. As they cruised underwater, alarms started ringing all over the bridge, giving them the impression that they were going to be ambushed.

"We've detected an Earth Forces fleet at nine o'clock. Distance at 20 kilometers." the CIC, in this case, Yuan, gave the information to the rest of the bridge crew.

"It's probably not after us. Their ships are not doing anything. No movement or activity has been detected." the other CIC, Nicholas, did the same.

"I see. In any case, put the ship under Code Yellow. All pilots are to go to their respective units and remain on standby." the Captain gave the order through the ship's PA, informing all the pilots. Of course, the pilots in the CIC couldn't resist the urge to fly out in battle.

"I'm going to my unit as well." Nicholas stood up and took his leave.

"Captain, I'll be going out in the Astray F. We'll need as much units as we can if we're going to fight against a fleet of that size." Yuan looked at the Captain and waited for her approval. The Captain thought for a bit, but finally gave him the permission.

"I don't know if you're able to effectively pilot the Astray F, but at the very least, you can act as an on-deck defender."

"I received basic Mobile Suit training after I was assigned to the STRIDE Flyer. I'll be able to handle myself out there!" he proudly declared as he displayed a thumb-up at the Captain. Not knowing if it was out of cockiness or self-confidence, the Captain just sighed knowing that there was no way to stop a person like him. But before he could dash off, the Captain gave him a warning.

"Stay with the doctor since you're not that experienced. We'll leave the ship defense to the both of you. Silve and Natalie will take care of the frontlines." the Captain paused for a while. "And on the way, get your replacements here on the bridge. We can't get into combat without a CIC."

"Roger." Yuan flashed a confident smile and ran off. In a less than a minute, the off-duty CIC took their position. However, the first report that they got after that was most probably disappointing to the two pilots, one of them itching to use his first unit and the other itching to use his long-time unit.

"Still no activity from the Alliance fleet."

"_I guess they're waiting for something else... If not us, there's no other target but the..."_ Cheska thought hard for a while, weighing the consequences of any actions that would be taken. _"If we engage them in combat now, we might simply be making the wrong move based on wrong assumptions. If we head towards them and fight back, the Alliance might make the wrong conclusion and use it as an excuse to attack our nation. They most likely have known by now where we came from. Attacking from a distance would violate ORB's sovereignty and will give them a reason to attack us."_

"Turn 90 degrees to port. Increase engine output to seventy percent and ascend at pitch angle 15. We'll travel along the coast of ORB. Put the ship into level flight once we reach an altitude of 1000 feet."

The ship turned underwater towards the said direction. Upon stopping the turn, the throttles were pushed forward even more and the Legacy's nose went up, making it ascend slowly towards the surface.

- - - - - - -

unnamed Spengler-class Carrier, Earth Alliance Forces Fleet, Pacific Ocean...

"One large heat source detected! It's emerging from the water!"

"Is it the Minerva?"

"No sir. It's not in our database. Our intel also said that the Minerva is still docked in ORB. It's either a new vessel of ORB or..."

"Or what?"

As the exchange of words and comments went around the bridge, a visual of the unidentified vessel was sent on a live feed from one of the frontal ships of the fleet. Though on a blur because of the sheer distance, a single detail was clearly seen on the side of its front: an eight rayed Sun.

"Or _that_, sir."

"Do we engage?" This time, another person asked, increasing the number of people talking from two to three.

"No. We're here for the Minerva. If we fail to take it out, Lord Djibril will have our heads put on a platter kilometers away from our shoulders." the person, who appeared to be the fleet's commander, finally broke his silence. "We know little about the Minerva's capabilities, and we know even less about that ship. It would be better if we don't risk anything now. That way, we'll be at full fighting force when we face the Minerva."

The bridge grew silent and they all resumed in watching the border of ORB for any signs of the Minerva.

- - - - - - -

Minerva's Bridge, Morgenroete dry dock, ORB Union...

"We've detected a large heat source up ahead." Meyrin, who was the only CIC on-duty at that time, said.

"What? What is it?" the relatively airheaded Arthur was quick to ask.

"It's..." Meyrin paused to check on the ship's identity. "...unknown! We have no data."

"Unknown?" Talia joined the conversation. "Is it ORB's?"

"No, ma'am. There's no IFF code coming from that ship."

"What? That's impossible!" Arthur exclaimed. Of course, his surprise was expected since IFF codes are a necessity for any military unit. Around the same time as the Earth Alliance's sighting, the crew of the Minerva was able to get a visual of the unknown vessel as it shot out of the water and took to the skies.

"Meyrin, take note of that vessel. Store its data as "Unknown 01". We might encounter it in the future." Talia gave the order so that they would be less caught off guard in the event that it pops out of nowhere.

"Any ideas on where that ship might have come from, Captain?"

"None... But I keep getting this feeling that we should keep our eye out for that." Talia stared at the screen where the Legacy was being monitored visually.

- - - - - - -

ZAFT Carpentaria Base, continental Australia...

"_ALL UNITS IN THE BASE, GET READY TO DEPLOY. BASE DEFENSE SQUADRONS ARE TO LAUNCH IMMEDIATELY."_

The announcement rang, following a general alarm, all over the base as orders finally came for the ZAFT forces on their Earth bases to undertake a preemptive defense, a move to get rid of the Alliance forces surrounding them. It was what became known as Operation Spear of Twilight. The Defense Squadrons mobilized first, providing the needed air support for falling ZAFT units. They have also been charged with providing cover for the rest of the units taking off. Of course, FAITH pilot Shannon Steyr and his _wingman_ Claire DeLune would be part of the offensive forces.

"When do we launch?" the blond pilot asked, her helmet in tow.

"Well, where's your unit?" Shannon replied.

"It's been placed next to the Legacy. X units seem to have a common hangar." she answered, referring to their units, X01MR-Ph and X2000E/A respectively.

"Alright, let's go."

As the two of them headed to their units, explosions rocked the air and it was quite literally raining fire. While the Earth Forces' Mobile Suits haven't reached the base itself yet, stray fire was already causing damages throughout the base. The ships have also began firing on the base, while ZAFT's vessels quickly returned fire. As beam fire rained and missiles exploded in mid-air, one missile slipped through the base's and the ships' CIWS, hitting the side of a hangar and causing a large hole on its wall. As if by reflex, Shannon held Claire in his arms rightly and used his body as a shield.

"Why did I...?" Shannon, in a partial state of shock, couldn't believe what he just did. He looked down on Claire, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." she smiled at him, the both of them somehow losing their stoic side. "You never change."

"Oh shut up. I don't even know what you're talking about." Shannon looked away to hide his blush. "Let's go."

"Right." she nodded. Shannon helped her up and they both hurried to their suits. With the both of them sitting in their cockpits, Claire made a secure connection just between the two of them. "What would be our priority?"

"We'll cut through the Mobile Suits, then proceed to eliminating their ships. The descent units should be enough to fight the deployed Mobile Suits. We'll start from the left of the attack fleet and move to its right. I have the weapons for the ships. You take care of the Mobile Suits. I'll be your shield on our way there, you'll be mine when we get there."

"I've been yours for a long time now." she whispered, cutting her transmission to Shannon. Within seconds, the screen opened and it was from Shannon.

"I didn't quite catch that."

"Nothing!" she pouted and started the walk of the Mobile Suit towards the tarmac. Without bothering to walk all the way, Shannon activated the thrusters and shot through the hole on the wall, replacing it with an even bigger one. He spaced the Legacy's feet apart and brought out his ranged weapons: a pair of hand-held hybrid cannons and the waist mounted railguns. A panel popped up in front of him, and while the system was acquiring multiple targets, he opened a line to the command center of the base.

"Where do you keep the Guuls?"he asked, sounding more like demanding rather than just asking. At the same time, the target acquisition has been completed and Shannon fired at the targets.

"_THERE ARE A FEW GUULS IN STORAGE AT THE END OF THE RUNWAY."_

"Roger."

Shannon folded the railguns and returned the hybrid cannons on its mount on the Legacy's waist. Without warning, he pushed the throttle to the max and skimmed across the concrete surface, causing sparks to fly in the Legacy's wake. Being too caught up with the intensity of the battle, Claire failed to notice that Shannon was no longer where he was. While the descent of ZAFT's reinforcements drawing to a close, the Alliance's forces kept pouring in. She decided to stop attacking and activate the jammers. With only the basic radar jammers mounted on the wings, it was only possible for the effect to be felt at a radius of 100 meters. Nonetheless, she was satisfied with its effects as the enemy Windams, with their sheer numbers, were bumping into each other. Though it failed to reduce the numbers of the enemy, it was enough to cause confusion among their ranks. This gave the ZAFT forces an opportunity to attack as those within the range of the GOUF Ignited temporarily returned to the ground and fired at the aerial forces that are currently in chaos.

"_THEY'RE NATURALS, BUT THEY'RE HUMANS AS WELL. IT WILL ONLY BE A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE THEY FIND A WAY TO FIGHT WITHOUT RADAR."_ the commander of one of the squadrons reminded them. Though no further words were made, it was evident that the soldiers understood what one of the commanders meant. Opening fire once again, the various ZAFT Mobile Suits have managed to clear the GOUF Ignited's coverage free of Alliance units. However, as one of the commanders stated, some of the EAF pilots have already gotten used to flying without a radar. In response, ZAFT's Mobile Suits that were mounted on Guuls took off again, followed by the last of the aging aerial suits. As they charged to intercept the incoming Mobile Suits, the rest of the units provided artillery support and served as the final line of defense for those that made it through. Claire was no exemption. She took off and deployed the right Slayer Whip. Its first victim was a Jet Dagger L, which was caught around the leg. The GOUF Ignited took a quick spin and slammed the Jet Dagger L into an incoming Jet Windam. The lady ace released the hold from the Dagger's leg and almost at the same time shot at them with her Draupnir until both units exploded. Retracting the heat rods, she swiftly pulled out her Tempest beam sword and moved in for more close-ranged combat. A pair of Jet Windams charged in with their beam sabers drawn. The three Mobile Suits converged in mid-air, with one of the beam sabers landing on the GOUF's shield and the other ending up in a struggle for control between close-combat weapons. Aiming her GOUF's free hand at one of the Windams caused it to quickly fall back, away from her. This freed the hand holding her beam sword, which she swung to her left, catching the other Windam with a slash that went all the way from the shoulder to its left leg. She immediately flew up to avoid the explosion, but as soon as she stopped her upward movement, alarms rang inside the cockpit and she saw that there were a pair of shells heading for her. With the GOUF Ignited's speed at almost zero, she wouldn't have sufficient acceleration to put herself out of its path. A pair of broad beams intercepted the shells, taking them out almost instantly. She turned to see where the beam came from and saw the smoking gun, literally, as the Legacy Phasemaker hovered there on a Guul, its barrels red hot from the sheer intensity of the shot.

"_IT'S A GOOD THING THIS GUN'S OUTPUT STILL HAS A HIGHER SETTING."_ Shannon's face appeared on her communications screen. For the first time in a while, she was able to let out a sigh of relief.

"Where have you been?" she replied, moving her unit close to the Legacy Phasemaker.

"_I WENT AROUND LOOKING FOR A GUUL. AS YOU CAN SEE, I FOUND ONE. IT'S JUST NOT WHERE THEY TOLD ME IT WOULD BE."_ Shannon replied. He began his charge towards the enemy again, with both his energy shields deployed. Acting as If they had a telepathic link, the GOUF Ignited flew closely behind him, shooting at any Alliance unit that appeared on either side of the Legacy.

"I'm surprised you got one." she said as she switched places with Shannon. This time, she was acting as the shield on their 90-degree descent on the enemy fleet. Shannon drew out the Excelsior in sword mode and jumped off the Guul. The GOUF quickly moved out of the way and the Guul turned into another direction. With his huge sword pointed downwards, Shannon activated his thrusters and increased his downward velocity. Being heavy and fast, the Legacy not only drove the sword into the ship, but the entire Mobile Suit went right through the ship itself, with force enough to break the ship in half. The ship, one of the Danilov-class escort destroyers, exploded above the Legacy which was underwater. Before the nearby ship, another destroyer of the same class, managed to turn its gun to fire at the Legacy, Claire's GOUF Ignited landed on its deck and fired at the bridge, continuously firing while it moved downwards until it ended up shooting on the deck. Claire quickly pulled off just before the ship exploded. On the other side of the fleet, ships were also exploding one after another as one of ZAFT's Vosgulov-class submarines unleashed a full barrage of torpedoes. Some hit the Alliance's underwater Mobile Suits, some were intercepted, while few scored a hit on a couple of the escort destroyers. With ships sinking one after another, ZAFT's units intensified their attack and took out a few more destroyers and a couple of carriers.

"We can't lose to them, can we?" Claire flashed Shannon a smile.

"_OF COURSE NOT. LET'S ROLL!"_ Shannon replied with a grin.

The Legacy jumped out of the water, where the GOUF was waiting overhead. Holding the Excelsior in one hand, Shannon used the other to grab the GOUF's. The GOUF, on the other hand, grabbed the Legacy and catapulted it into one of the nearest carriers. Using its momentum once again, it cleaved the bridge and command center off the deck. Using the deck as a platform, the Legacy's railguns deployed and the hybrid cannons were back on its hands. Leaving the hybrid cannons on its maximum output, he fired a shot that went right through a couple of ships until it hit the water and caused an explosion, spraying water in all directions, both from the destroyed vessels and the beam's impact on the water.

"It's practically an anti-fortress cannon in its own right..." Claire remarked, staring at the big hole that was present on the ships that were hit.

"_I KNOW._" Shannon replied. It was during that last shot that he noticed something. A single shot like that was able to drain the nuclear reactor's power levels into half. While the energy levels were returning to normal after a while, the drain was far quicker than the replenishment. This was the first time he saw it, since he had only used it at its minimum power output, consuming energy that's almost the same in amount as a plasma beam cannon. _"I guess that means I can shoot it at a maximum of two consecutive times before I run out of power._" _"I'M IN YOUR HANDS, CLAIRE!"_

"Okay." she moved the GOUF directly above the Legacy, virtually occupying the same vertical space, to defend the Legacy. Below her, Shannon prepared to fire again. He took aim at one of the carriers and fired, once again at maximum. It delivered the same effect, carving a big hole through the ship, into the destroyer that was beside it and into the Windam flying alongside the destroyer. All three exploded simultaneously, and the rest of the beam hit the water again, causing another explosion, albeit much smaller. Shannon lowered the guns, the barrels of which were still smoking and red hot. As the number of EAF's Mobile Suits and vessels dwindled, the command vessel fired a series of signal flares signifying a full retreat. All of their remaining Mobile Suits returned to the ships, which in turn were moving in reverse, away from Carpentaria. The crew of the carrier that the Legacy was on abandoned ship, getting into lifeboats and being picked up by the retreating units. At the same time, the eyes of the Legacy lost its glow and the armor's colors faded into monochrome, signifying that the energy was insufficient to maintain the Phase Shift Armor. Though such units, like the GAT-X105 Strike, were still functional even after losing the Phase Shift Armor, the Legacy drained its reactor to such an extreme extent that it simply fell back like a rock on the abandoned carrier's deck. Seeing that there was no longer any immediate danger, and that other ZAFT units were in pursuit of the retreating Alliance forces to push them away from Carpentaria, Claire landed the GOUF and jumped off the cockpit, rushing to the Legacy. Once there, she manually unlocked the hatch, used all her strength just to push the cover up and lowered the hatch door. Lying on his back, Shannon was, in his perspective, looking up at her.

"What's with the panic?" he smiled, removing his helmet and finally letting fresh air hit his face.

"N-nothing." she inwardly sighed, trying her best to fake a stoic face.

"I guess we could say that Spear of Twilight's a success." he said, slowly crawling out of the cockpit and walked to stand on the Legacy's face. "The objective was to get rid of the Earth Alliance forces that were surrounding our bases here on Earth, and we did just that. Let's just hope Gibraltar ended up successful as well."

"Most likely." Claire sat on the Legacy's face, putting her arms behind her to lean on them. "What do we do now?"

"Wait for someone to retrieve the Legacy or wait for it to have enough energy to fly all the way back to land, and then get some rest. All that impact made me tired." he heaved a sigh as he sat down next to her. "Hey, Claire?"

"Yes?" she turned her head towards him, curious as to why he sounded more casual than he usually does.

"I think I remember you."

Claire didn't utter a word. She just smiled at him and looked into the horizon. Still not getting it, Shannon also looked at the horizon and stared, trying to figure out why people keep looking into the distance.

- - - - - - -

**A/N: **_Here's the latest chapter. If I remember correctly, the next chapter should coincide with Episode 13(?) of Gundam SEED Destiny, which is the assassination attempt. I guess it's time for the Mobile Suit Legacy to meet the Minerva._


	15. Phase 14: Divine Providence

Morgenroete dry dock, ORB Union

"Captain, the Chief Representative has left the ship. All doors are closed and we're ready to depart." Arthur said to the Captain. "We're waiting for your command."

"Alright, we'll be heading out." with a nod, Talia ordered the crew to begin the launch procedures.

The dry dock's gates opened and water flooded in very rapidly. Once the water levels inside and outside the dock were levelled, Talia squeezed the arm rest of her seat in anxiety, then gave the order to launch. "Ahead, slowly. Minerva, depart!"

ZAFT's prototype ship began moving forward, slowly at first when leaving the dock, but gently accelerated as it continued to sail towards open waters. From afar, a sinister plot was beginning to unravel.

"Looks like it's going on as planned, father." A periwinkle haired man wearing the ORB government's executive attire murmured while watching the Minerva from a tall building. An older man wearing the same attire stood next to him, also watching as the Minerva left the dock.

"Yes. All that's left is for you to do your job with that girl. From then on, we'll be in the good graces of Lord Djibril, and we'll have ORB on the palm of our hands." the older man said as a sinister smile appeared on his face.

"I'll be going to the command center. I have to make sure that _they _know it's coming."

- - - - - - -

Vosgulov-class submarine _Sphyma_, 20 miles away from ORB's Territorial Waters...

"Sir, the Minerva has left the dock." a member of the ZAFT submarine crew reported to their captain. "An AWACS unit reported the presence of an Earth Alliance Fleet heading for ORB."

"An Alliance Fleet heading for ORB?" the unbelieving commander turned his head to his subordinate. "Is that true?"

"That is correct, sir. It was on patrol when it detected the fleet."

"_It is possible that the fleet is on its way to attack the Minerva as soon as it leaves ORB territory." _the submarine's commander thought deep for a while. "Have we received any new orders from PLANT? Or from Carpentaria?"

"That's a negative, sir."

"_I guess if it's really after the Minerva, she'll have to handle it on her own. Even with three Red Coats on a single ship, it's still too much to take on a fleet on their own." _the captain cleared his throat and gave out a new order. "Assault team, prepare to sortie! We'll commence the mission at sunset!"

- - - - - - -

Marshall Islands, Pacific Ocean..

"Tatiana, we have a large heat-source coming in from 5-o'clock." F05 pilot Narelle Clarris informed her teammate.

"Any identification?"

"Not really. I can't get a clear visual without making my unit stand up."

"I see. It's probably what we're waiting for. Prepare to sortie, we'll either intercept or rendezvous with that thing." Without hesitation, F01 pilot Tatiana Lancris put on her helmet and climbed aboard her unit. Having been waiting on the island for a few days, temporarily camouflaged their units while kneeling. In her opinion, the camouflage are no longer needed, one way or another.

Clarris went ahead and closed the cockpit first. Darkness filled the claustrophobia-inducing until the screens turned on one at a time. As soon as the main screen and the side screens turned on, she put the Astray F on its legs and watched the incoming heat source.

"_CAN YOU SEE IT?"_ Tatiana asked as she also put her unit to its feet.

"Yeah... But detail's not very helpful. We'll have to wait 'til it gets closer."

"_OR WE CAN GET CLOSER!" _Without any superior officer to stop her and not waiting for Narelle to reply, she took off to attack the unknown ship, quickly aiming the gatling gun mounted on her shield and heading straight her target.

The ship, on the other hand, sortied out a flurry of units. Surprisingly, all its units simply chose to stand on deck, not raising arms against the brash F01. The F05, on the other hand, was following closely and observing the units on the screen and the data on her computer.

"_That big one on the left, and that thing on its chest... It's definitely..."_ Narelle thought as she kept observing the Mobile Suits on the ship, all within the span of 5 seconds. _"The white one on the center is identified by the computer as the GAT-X114 Blitz. And that blue one behind it... That's-!"_

"Tatiana! Don't attack!" Narelle screamed at the top of her voice. This caused a really deafening sound inside Tatiana's cockpit, enough to stop her dead on her tracks.

"_WHY? THEY'RE OBVIOUSLY AFTER US."_ the brash leader of the Astray Squadron protested.

"Seriously..." Narelle let out a sigh, "Without Malkiel to go against you, you go all out like this."

"_WHAT WAS THAT?"_

"Nothing." heaving another sigh, one which said I-was-right, she went on to explain why the attack should be called off. "That unit on the left, the big one, is known to us as EUMF-X03A Azure Strike. That thing on its chest is the STRIDE Flyer, which I think flew to Clark from Singapore during the fall of Junius 7. It was a top secret unit being maintained at Clark; secret since it carries a nuclear reactor and an N-Jammer Canceller. That white one is the prototype of the EAF's GAT-X207, known as the GAT-X104 Blitz. And as you can see behind them is an Astray F, Unit 22."

As the ship began to slow down and softly entered the water, the two Astray units met the Legacy halfway and landed on its deck, joining the other 3 Mobile Suits.

"Seriously... We were almost about to go at you had you not stopped. You gave us quite a scare." the Blitz pilot, Nicholas, sort of greeted the two ladies. "I'm Dr. Nicholas Amalfi. I'm not exactly one of you guys, but due to a long series of events, I'm acting as this ship's CIC."

"You really know how to shock an entire battleship." the rougish pilot of the Azure Strike, Silve, butted in. "As far as introductions go, I'm Silve Almana, one of the pilots on this ship."

"Yeah. Seriously, who goes charging at a ship just like that? That's plain reckless!" Natalie complained, crossing her arms and turning her head away. "I mean, we had to sortie for _this_?"

A vein popped on Tatiana's forehead. She rolled her eyes towards Natalie and sent a glare. The blond, on the other hand, wasn't one to back down. Sending an intense glare back at Tatiana, everyone else knew that sparks were about to fly.

"Do you have a problem with how I handle things?" Tatiana answered as calmly as she could. Though her voice suggests that she's calm, her facial expressions are saying otherwise.

"Yes, I do." keeping her gaze straight and intense. "Having been chosen as part of the Astray squadron, I can't believe you act first before you think."

Normally, Tatiana wouldn't mind. But with what she deemed as insults being hurled at her, and with her ability to lead the squadron being questioned by someone outside the team, she was starting to lose her composure. And from what she saw on the uniform, Natalie's a rank below her, making things a whole lot worse.

"Just who do you think you are?!" Tatiana finally snapped. She charged at Natalie with a fist raised up to hit her. Natalie, on the other hand, refused to move and kept glaring at Tatiana.

"Wait! Don't!" Narelle pleaded with Tatiana, holding her around the waist in an attempt to stop her. With a short struggle, Tatiana broke loose and continued on her intended attack. Nicholas and Yuan tried to run towards Tatiana in an attempt to grab her, but she was much too fast for them. As she got closer, Natalie braced herself for impact. From the corner of her eyes, she could see Tatiana's fist coming in really fast. Just moments from contact, someone grabbed Tatiana's hand from behind with a very firm grip and stopped in completely.

"Don't." Silve's grip tightened, but his face and his tone were still normal. "Don't lay a hand on my partner."

With a sigh of relief, Narelle walked closer and put her hand on Silve's shoulder. "I'm sorry for this. You can let go now."

Silve turned his head and looked at Tatiana's face. Seeing the defeated look on her, he knew what this other Astray pilot meant when she said he could let go now. He released his tight grip and left the short-haired pilot. As she fell to the ground on her knees, her partner sat beside her and tried to comfort her. At least, that's how Silve saw it. _"I guess it's my turn now."_

As he approached Natalie, he was surprisingly met with a pout. "What did you do that for? I could've handled myself!"

"Yeah, right." Silve put his arms on his shoulders and smiled.

As they were all busy with the ruckus that happened on deck in such a short period of time, they failed to notice that the ship's captain was already on the deck with them.

"You must be 1st Lieutenant Tatiana Lancris and 1st Lieutenant Narelle Clarris." the Captain said the moment she joined the group. "I'm this ship's captain, Colonel Cheska Benthal. I guess you must be the reinforcements sent by my father."

Narelle and Tatiana bolted up and saluted. The Captain quickly returned the salute and signalled them to ease up.

"So, where's the rest of the squadron?" the Captain asked, looking up at the two Astray Fs in front of her. On the left shoulder of each Astray was its unit number. The one on her left had the number F01 and the one on her right was F05, obviously missing a few. She then turned to their Astray F unit and saw that it was labelled F22. That makes the list of missing Astrays longer.

"Your father thought that if we travelled in a large group, we'd be easily found. So he split the original Astray squadron into 4 teams. Each of those teams is made up of 3 units, except ours. Two of those teams are somewhere in the Himalayas. The other one was shipped to Scandinavia with its pilots. And as for us, we were sent here, to the Marshall Islands, to wait for a ship that would pick us up." Narelle paused for a bit, looking around then continued, "We weren't given information on what ship would pick us up. Therefore, we ended up attacking you. Thankfully, it didn't push through."

"I see." Cheska, amused at how things turned out, giggled. "Alright, get your units inside. I want all of you to report to my office in 20 minutes."

- - - - - - -

Minerva's bridge, approximately 200 kilometers South-Southwest of ORB, Pacific Ocean..

"I can't believe Shinn was able to do all that. He practically took on an entire fleet by himself!" the overly enthusiastic Arthur told the story like it was from some superhero movie. "And he effectively used the Deuterion Beam!"

"For the 3rd time Arthur, I KNOW!" Talia frantically rubbed her temples, in a futile attempt to get rid of the migraine she got from Arthur's storytelling. _"But still... What he has accomplished is something unheard of. I'm sure people will even begin to compare him to the Freedom."_

"Any word from Carpentaria, Meyrin?" the Captain asked her CIC officer, and finally cutting the storytelling loop.

"None so far." the young CIC officer replied.

Before Talia could utter a word, alarms rang all over the bridge.

"We have one unidentified heat source approaching from 3 o'clock! By its size, it's probably a Mobile Suit!"

Talia nervously bit her thumb. Even though it was just a single Mobile Suit, it could mean trouble for them. _"In this ship's condition, and with the pilots tired from that battle just a little earlier, it's bad."_

"Captain, what do we do?" Arthur's enthusiasm transformed into some sort of panic. Hoping for the best and having no other choice, she decided to face the wave head-on.

"Lower the bridge! Declare Condition Red! Alert the Mobile Suit Pilots!"

Almost immediately, the bridge dropped into the lower deck and thick gates of metal closed above it. Red lights were everywhere and the battered Minerva was once again in combat status.

"Have Shinn deploy to intercept. Rey and Luna are to act as the close-in defense of the Minerva!"

Within seconds, the Core Splendor was outside and heading straight for the unknown object heading for them, followed by the Chest Flyer, Leg Flyer and a Force Silhouette.

"Captain, Shinn's forming the Impulse." Meyrin said. Everyone looked on screen as the pieces of the Impulse aligned and prepared to merge into a single Mobile Suit. While it has been a routine for them, there's always a change for an error somewhere which can be catastrophic, thus the entire bridge is rather tense during the procedure.

"LET'S VOLT-IN!" Arthur enthusiastically shouted with a fist raised into the air as the Leg Flyer and Chest Flyer attached to the Core Splendor. Everyone looked at him in disdain for acting so stupid and for ruining the tense moment, from the CIC to the navigators to the Captain.

"Arthur, you do know I can have you dismissed for being psychologically unfit, correct?" Talia's eyebrow twitched while glaring at Arthur. "We nearly died earlier, we're in a pinch now and you have time to do _that_?!"

If stares and words were solid, Arthur would've been like mashed potato by now. While what the Captain said to him was true, he can't help but feel that it was the only way he could let out all that stress in one fell swoop. Having been caught between two fleets, being backed into a corner by the Alliance, and having narrowly escaped being sunk, it's all very stressful for him. Nonetheless, he simply cleared his throat and tried to regain his composure.

"If you wouldn't mind, Captain, we have a possible battle in our hands. I think that's where are focus should be at this moment."

Everyone was dumbstruck. But before anything else could happen, Meyrin's report shifted their attention back to the Impulse.

"The Impulse is engaging the enemy. We also have a visual of the unknown Mobile Suit." She said as she put a visual of the battle on the screen.

The Impulse fought a black Mobile Suit of unknown origin. Physically, it was dwarfing the Impulse, and with multiple spikes protruding from its back, it was the most menacing unit the entire crew has ever seen.

"Captain, correct me if I'm wrong but..." Arthur blurted out, quite hesitant on his idea, but decided to go on with it. "...isn't that the Providence?"

- - - - - - -

Outside the Minerva..

"_This feeling... It's familiar. But somehow, it doesn't feel right." _Rey thought as he watched the black Mobile Suit battle it out with the Impulse in a shootout. Though it seemed equal, the shots from the unknown unit were coming in closer than the shots done by Shinn. _"Shinn's at his limit. He hasn't rested enough since we left ORB."_

He aimed his gun and let out a shot at the black unit, breaking up the fight between it and the Impulse. Surprisingly, its pilot decided to open a communications line between himself and the rest crew and Mobile Suits of Minerva.

"Hello, everyone." the pilot's face appeared on the screens of the Impulse, the ZAKUs and the Minerva.

"You're... You're just like _him._" Rey responded, keeping his eyes on the pilot.

"I'm like him, I'm like you... But we're not the same." the pilot smirked. "Seriously... The moment I heard you defeated an entire Alliance fleet, I came rushing in to fight you. I wanted to see for myself how good ZAFT's elite are. I am utterly disappointed."

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?" Shinn shouted, charging in with a beam saber in an attempt to cut the black unit in half. He clearly missed, and the unnamed pilot seemed to have exerted little to no effort in dodging.

"Who do I think I am?" the pilot smirked again, opening the helmet to let them see who was behind the tinted glass. "Surprised to see me?"

Every senior crew member of the bridge froze. Before them was the splitting image of Rau Le Creuset, but much younger, and more feminine.

"You're pretty young. What's your point of coming here? And what's your name?" the straightforward Talia Gladys asked.

"Just call me Rei." the pilot's smirk softened into a confident smile. "I'm just here to check if you really were as good as what the survivors said. And that brings me to my business with you."

Without warning, she sliced the left arm of the Impulse and part of its Force Silhouette off. Not giving Shinn a chance to react, she slashed both legs off in one sweep, following it with a kick on the torso. "Hmph... Is this all you've got?"

As Shinn helplessly fell, he opened a line to the Minerva to try out the same moves he used against the Zamza-Zah.

"Send out one Chest Flyer and one Leg Flyer!"

Immediately, a new set of limbs flew out of Minerva's catapult to replace those that have been damaged. Shinn, however, was in for a surprise. Rei shot the Flyers as soon as they got out of the catapult, leaving Shinn with just one complete limb.

"You didn't think it was that easy now, did you?"

In a fit of desperation, the Minerva pointed both Tristans and the Isolde at Rei's unit while the Impulse continued to fall into the sea. Firing simultaneously and in quick succession, Rei was still finding it easy to dodge the shots.

"Your rate of fire is predictable." she said, continually mocking the opponent. All DRAGOON pods attached to the back pointed forward and fired at the Minerva, heavily damaging the weapons. Being close enough to the ship, she shifted to using the composite armed shield mounted on her Mobile Suit's right arm. However, this also meant that she was close enough to be assaulted by the Minerva's CIWS, combined with a barrage of Firebee missiles from the two ZAKU units. Wisely moving backwards, beam fire from the ZAKUs chased her, with some nearly scoring a hit. "Let me just tell you, I'm far better than those three losers you fought at Armory One!"

"What is with this person?" Talia complained, "Meyrin, how's the ship holding up?"

"Not good. With the Impulse out practically unusable and the ZAKUs nothing more than turrets, we have nothing else against her. The Tristans and the Isolde suffered direct hits and are unusable."

"_If we get hit by another one of those, we'll be one step closer to being sunk." _Talia thought, considering how easily she disposed of the Impulse, and how she can easily attack them from afar.

As if hearing Talia's worries, Rei unleashed another flurry of beam fire from her DRAGOONs and the Minerva further suffered multiple hits throughout its length. However, before she could do any further damage, she detected the approach of a couple of Mobile Suits.

"Captain! We have a pair of heat sources coming in. They're from Carpentaria!" Meyrin joyfully exclaimed. Everyone else on the bridge let out a sigh of relief as images of their reinforcements appeared on the screen.

On the left was the ZGMF-X01MR-Ph Legacy Phasemaker, mounted on a Guul and coming in fast, closely followed by the ZGMF-X2000E/A GOUF Ignited. A couple of faces then appeared on the Minerva's screen.

"_I AM SHANNON STEYR, APPOINTED AS MEMBER OF FAITH BY THE CHAIRMAN. WE'RE HERE AS REINFORCEMENTS." _Shannon identified himself while keeping an eye on the black unit that seemed to be staring at them. _"That looks like that Mobile Suit I encountered on re-entry."_

Without hesitation, he aimed both hybrid cannons at the black Mobile Suit, which it easily dodged. However, a follow-up shot that came almost at the same time from the Legacy's railguns nailed it on the back damaging one of the pods attached. At the speed the Legacy was letting out its shots, she was barely able to block the simultaneous fire from its railguns.

"_This is bad. This guy far outguns me, and he has a support unit." _Rei gritted her teeth, her thoughts referring to the Legacy and the GOUF Ignited. "I'll take my leave for now. But do remember, the next time you run into the Divine Providence, don't hesitate to say hello!"

With a wink, Rei fled the area towards the West. With time running out for the Guul, Shannon decided against giving chase and signalled Claire to land on the Minerva as the black and grey Mobile Suit vanished into the horizon. Rei and Lunamaria, on the other hand, were tasked with retrieving the remains of the Impulse. Both the Legacy and the GOUF entered the Minerva, and as their suits were being moved to the hangar for storage, Shannon and Claire had a chance to talk.

"Divine Providence, was that its name?" Claire rested on the same railings that Shannon was leaning on.

"I suppose. There's no way the original Providence could do what it did earlier." Shannon's eyes then turned towards the Core Splendor, which has just finished being separated from the destroyed Flyers. "And I'm surprised it took down the Impulse with ease. I'm beginning to think that its reputation is merely an overstatement."

"Perhaps there are numerous factors that contributed to its defeat." Claire's reply came as the usual monotone.

"Perhaps." Shannon replied. From the corner of his eye, he could see Impulse's pilot about to pass him from behind. He pushed himself away from the railings and face Shinn.

"Are you the pilot of that came from Carpentaria?" Shinn asked, not giving room for introductions.

"I am. What of it?" Shannon replied.

"Nothing." Shinn turned his eyes towards Claire. "And who is she?"

"Listen, before you go off asking people's names, shouldn't you introduce yourself first?" Shannon quickly butted in. His tone was the same, but his annoyance was beginning to manifest itself. As the two looked at each other in the eye, people around them knew that something was brewing between those two, and it doesn't appear to be good.

- - - - - - -

**A/N: **I'm not too sure how this turned out, but all I can say is that I think I went overboard with Arthur. Poor him. As for Shannon and Claire, don't get your hopes up. They're just with the Minerva until Carpentaria. That's it for now.

Let's volt-in! LOL


	16. Phase 15: Trouble in Paradise

**A/N: **For this chapter, I chose to do a little exploration on the aftermath of the assassination attempt on Lacus Clyne. That brings in my favorite princess to her brother's rescue!

- - - - - - -

Attha Mansion, ORB Union...

Cagalli was pacing to and fro in front of her desk. Worries, worries and even more worries. First, it was the attack on Armory One, followed by the fall of Junius 7, the relief efforts for the people of ORB, the invisible power struggle between the faction loyal to her father and the faction aligned with the Seirans, the attack on PLANT, the declaration of war. Everything that comes her way seemed nothing but trouble, but no matter how hard she tried to shrug it off, she felt that another one was headed her way... including Athrun's blitzkrieg of a proposal. Though she didn't exactly think it was bad, she was hoping that it came at a better time, when she had lesser things to think about. As if that wasn't enough, her gut feeling just _had _to be right.

"Ma'am, I've received an urgent report from the Defense Fleet." a soldier said, upon knocking. Though it was indeed an office, the poor stayed outside while giving the report to the Representative Emir of ORB.

"What is it?" Cagalli's head turned towards the door, her hand massaging her temples. _"Not another one... Please, not another one. I don't care if it's something like Athrun dyeing his hair pink, just not another bad news."_

However, fate wasn't on her side as the soldier's report was definitely bad.

"We've received a report of ZAFT Mobile Suits sighted on the coast."

"I see. And how bad is the situation? What's the Defense Fleet doing? And where exactly are these units?" Cagalli's agitation was starting to manifest itself.

"The Defense Fleet is currently on its way. The units are in one of the group of islands located off Onogoro. And..." the soldier paused, thinking deeply if he should continue or not. "And it's probably very bad."

"How bad?"

"We've detected the Freedom on radar."

"_The Freedom?!"_ the mere mention of the name made her forget her headache. She immediately opened the door and went face-to-face with the poor soldier. "Did you just say you've detected the Freedom on radar?"

"Y-Yes, ma'am." cold sweat trickled down his cheeks. Though young, her informal moniker _The Lioness of ORB_ really was no understatement.

"Get the Heli ready immediately! And get three to four MEDEVAC helicopters as well. Tell them to head to where my Heli is going. I won't take excuses if they take more than 10 minutes to get there."

The soldier said nothing. He just saluted and ran off, first into the mansion's helipad, then back through the hallway towards the exit to contact the military. Cagalli, on the other hand, marched off to the helipad.

- - - - - - -

John Paul Jones Tarawa-class carrier, Pacific Ocean...

"Colonel..." a man in a lab coat cautiously approached the masked man in black Earth Alliance uniform. "...the four of them are currently undergoing further reconditioning as we speak. They should be ready for combat in half an hour."

"Good." Neo replied, "And what about the other girl, the fourth?"

"As for her..." the man took in a deep breath and continued. "She's fine. The level of her capabilities during the last battle was astounding. It appears that our theory was correct. However, she still has a long way to go, as far as physical conditioning was concerned. Even though her endurance was far greater than we anticipated, she's still a technical newbie. Though her skills and endurance are above average, I'd say she's still far from defeating a combat-hardened ace."

"So in short, even with her getting the best genetic combination without any form of manipulation, she still has to work on it like the rest of us mere mortals?" a rare thing, sarcasm, came from the masked colonel.

"Precisely. But she's still far from what humans have attained by directly manipulating genes. Direct alteration allowed us to increase capabilities beyond the normal limitations."

As this conversation was happening above deck, a certain redhead was having a dream down below.

_It was dark, and the only thing that she saw was herself... sort of. She was wearing a new EAF uniform; pink as before, but with a pink miniskirt just like Stellar's light blue one. Two more people materialized in front of her, both carrying the same hair and eyes that she has. On her left was a young girl, around fifteen, with her hair partly tied behind her head. By the looks of her face, she was what people would call a spoiled brat. With crossed arms and a definite pout, the young girl looked at her._

"_So you're part of the Earth Forces too?" she asked, albeit in monotone. The young girl just turned her head in arrogance._

"_What? Do I look like I'm wearing a ZAFT uniform to you?" the young girl spoke, referring to her uniform. The uniform was just like hers, but with a black skirt. She just let out a small smile and turned to the other girl, which was around her age. She was wearing a nurse's uniform and looked gentle. Keeping her hair tied neatly into a bun behind her head, no strand of hair was seen on her face._

"_And I take it you're from the Alliance too?" the girl on her right asked. "What's your name?"_

"_L-Le..." she tried to say her name, but she couldn't. She tried again, but no sound came out of her mouth. She kept trying, but even when she tried to scream, there was just complete silence. Even the two girls before her couldn't speak. She could see their mouths moving, but there was no sound. She didn't know if the world put itself on mute or if she just became deaf._

_Suddenly, the silence was broken. She could hear the older girl's words over and over again, like echoes that do not weaken. What's your name? What's your name? What's your name? Those were the words that went all around her. She knew her name, and it was Leah Fortescue. But somehow, it didn't seem right. It seems as though even her body was rejecting it. The repeating question got louder and louder, voices of men soon followed._

"_Leah..." a deep voice called. It carried the tone of a strong and aggressive person, with a hint of gentleness. His voice was the first voice she heard after the question, and it soon repeated itself._

"_Scarlet..." a gentler voice called. It was not as strong or aggressive as the previous, but it sounded gentler. Afterwards, this name and voice also repeated itself, increasing her confusion._

"_Who am I?!" she grasped her head and fell on her knees. The torment of the voices was starting to become overwhelming for her. And suddenly, she heard a loud voice. It sounded like it was from someone young. Definitely not strong and definitely not aggressive, but it was the gentlest of the three. Yet somehow, the tone of his voice signified great pain. And this time, the name was quite familiar to her._

"_FLLAY!"_

The familiar voice shot her eyes open. Her eyes were quite blurry at first, but she allowed them to slowly regain focus and she saw that she was inside some sort of small room. In the middle was her _bed_, similar to the bubbles of the Extendeds, but without the bubble cover. Also, unlike the other Extended room, there was no one else in sight. A single computer console was located just behind her bed, but there was no one to attend to her. She slowly crawled out of bed and straightened her clothes. She wore a loose thin apple green lingerie that goes a bit beyond the hip, and nothing underneath but her lower undergarments. Surprisingly, she didn't feel cold at all. She wandered around the room and approached the mirror-like steel wall. Staring intently at her reflection, she couldn't help but notice the resemblance between her and the girls in her dream. In an impromptu decision to experiment, she held up portions of her hair and gazed in amazement. She looked like an older version of the younger girl in her dream, the only differences are possibly due to age.

"_Was that girl... me?"_

Surprised by the results, she decided to give it another try. This time, she held up all her hair and the result was something she half-expected: she looked exactly like the older girl in her dream.

"_So it was both me?"_

The confused pilot sat on the floor and curled up, with her head resting on her knees.

- - - - - - -

Unnamed Island, off the coast of Onogoro, ORB Union...

A Heli landed on the beach, littered with debris from what looked like aquatic Mobile Suits. Sand was kicked up by the Heli's rotors, prompting the Desert Tiger, Murrue, Lacus and the children to quickly move away as it made contact with the sand. As soon as the engines were shut down, Cagalli jumped off practically ran towards Lacus.

"What happened here? Are all of you alright?" Cagalli asked.

"We're fine. But..." the pink songstress trailed off as she gazed at the Freedom, "...I don't think he is."

"Kira..." Cagalli's facial expression softened. Reverting back to the tomboyish person that she was at Desert Dawn, she tossed aside her shoes and ran barefoot towards the Freedom. Seeing her approaching, Kira put the Freedom on its knees and put one hand on the sand. He immediately came out and met waited for Cagalli to reach him under the Freedom. With what seemed as a _traditional method to reunite_ for the twins, Cagalli glomped Kira to the sand.

"Do you always have to do that?" Kira's eyebrow rose as he looked at his sister.

"Oh shut up! I was worried when I heard that they detected the Freedom!" Cagalli quickly retorted, grabbing Kira by the collar. Though she was doing her best to stop herself, she was already on the verge of crying. Tears were already starting to gather around her eyes. She had a lot to worry about, but somehow, all that combined is nothing compared to the worry she had for him. "I told you to live in Onogoro so that you won't always have to do things yourself!"

"But I'll only be a burden to you... You'll just worry about me when I'm near." Kira uttered his excuse.

"You always worry about me! Worry about yourself once in a while!" Cagalli's grip on his collar was getting tighter, and right now, she was already shouting and already crying. Murrue was about to step forward and intervene. Though the Freedom was quite far from them, Cagalli's shouting were loud enough to be heard at that distance. However, Andrew stretched his arm and blocked Murrue's path. He simply shook his head and smiled, for he knew that those two needed time together.

Kira noticed that she already crossed the line and finally broke down. He didn't utter a word. He simply put his arms around her and hugged her tight. As he did so, Cagalli no longer tried to hold back and wept her heart out. Having to deal with all the problems of ORB alone was heavy, and even though she was crying, she was glad that she could let them all out. While Athrun was supposed to be her lover, it seemed like Kira was doing a better job than him. But once she thought about it, he really was the only person she could freely turn to; her other half, her reflection of sorts, her bestfriend, her brother.

- - - - - - -

**A/N: **Well, that's it for now. I've left Fllay to ponder upon her little identity crisis, though I can say I've made her hold her sanity pretty well. I think we've had enough insanity in GSD. None of my OCs made an appearance, though I did manage to get some focus on the twins and Fllay. Still working on the pairings, and hopefully, I make a decision before Kira's wedding crasher scene.


	17. Phase 16: The Ghost and the Goddess Pt1

Hundreds of kilometers, East-Northeast of Carpentaria…

The Minerva was cruising slowly on the water's surface. The damage it took was enough to keep the Minerva from taking to the skies, drastically reducing its speed to that of a water-bound battleship.

"Have them hurry the emergency repairs on the weapons. If we can't get there fast, we need to have all the guns we can get to fend off a major attack." Talia passed the order to her Arthur. "That black Mobile Suit nearly took us down single-handedly. She easily took advantage of the gaps in our defenses."

"I know." Arthur answered after giving the Captain's order to the crew. "If it weren't for those two giving her something she didn't expect, we'd be swimming with the fishes."

"If that was the case, it's possible that they've been observing us." Shannon, who held his chin while staring out the bridge, said. "She seemed like she knew what she was doing, and that she didn't expect any airborne long-ranged units from arriving. You saw how she reacted she saw my Legacy, right? It was bad enough that she fled."

"They? Us?" Talia's eyebrow rose. It looked like the pilot had an idea.

"They… There's more than one of them, I think. Us… I've been attacked on my way here from orbit. That attack caused the damage to the wings of my unit. That's why I'm using a Guul right now."

"Are you sure it's not the same as the one that attacked us?" Arthur butted back into the conversation.

"Positive. You wouldn't expect that thing to get to the upper atmosphere and stay there, would you?" a tiny, barely noticeable smirk appeared on Shannon's face. It was fun catching people off guard like that. Arthur, on the other hand, was at a loss for words. "In any case, we know that there are at least two Mobile Suits that have the same color scheme and the same knack for attacking out of the blue, with no apparent reason. One's an assault type and one's a high-mobility type, though their general shapes are pretty similar."

"But we have no evidence to prove that those two are related." Claire finally broke her silence. "Other than their color scheme, we have nothing on them."

"And there's that." Shannon's smirk turned into a genuine smile. It's rare for someone to catch him off-guard for a change, and she did just that.

"If that's the case, I think we should send information regarding this matter to the Supreme Council once we get to Carpentaria." Talia once again turned to Arthur. "Please prepare a report regarding this, and send it to PLANT as soon as possible."

"Yes, ma'am." Arthur saluted and took a seat at one of the vacant consoles on the bridge.

- - - - - - -

Hundreds of Kilometers, Northeast of Carpentaria…

Natalie was in her room, thinking back to the events that transpired from when the two Astray Fs landed on the Legacy, to the meeting in the Captain's office. She removed her skirt and top, and tossed them to one corner of the room. She'd usually place them neatly somewhere, but for now, she couldn't care less. After that, she immediately plopped onto her bed and stared at the ceiling.

"_That girl's nuts. She's mad at me just because I was stating the obvious." _she thought, with the scenes flashing back in her head.

_FLASHBACK_

_She was pissed on how they've been sent on a mad scramble to intercept what turned out to be friendly units. And just when she was enjoying her beauty sleep! As she stomped out of her room, she ran into Silve who was heading to the hangar himself. Seeing her agitated face, he was quick to make a joke out of it._

"_Is it that time of the month?"_

_WHAM! She punched him in the arm, quite a strong one at that. Though Silve barely flinched, he could clearly feel the pain and power that hit him. He didn't know she was this strong. Brushing it aside, he continued with his light mood._

"_Why the long face?"_

"_Ruined beauty sleep." she grumpily replied._

"_I see. If it's any consolation, you could sleep in the cockpit. Leave everything to me." _

"_What's that supposed to mean? I'll be staying in the hangar?" she shot him a glare. He visibly flinched._

"_No, not that. It just means that STRIDE Flyer and the Azure Strike will be heading out together. So just relax."_

"_If we're going to head out into battle, that thing's going to rock so hard, I won't be able to relax one bit." She quickly retorted. Somehow, he was failing at helping lighten up her mood._

"_Just chill." without warning, he grabbed her and put his arms around her, putting Natalie in a tight embrace. "They say hugs work really well in such situations. Is it working?"_

"_Y-yes." she blushed. Ever since the incident at the park in ORB where they kissed, she was no longer sure if Silve saw her as just a friend, or more. And it seemed like he wasn't exerting any effort to clear things up._

"_That's good. Now, let's go!" he grabbed her hand and dragged her all the way to the hangar. Though he didn't seem to notice, she was happy at what he did._

_And so they launched, to intercept units that raised the ship's alarm. But when they finally got out, they noticed that it was just a couple of Astray Fs. They simply landed on the Legacy's upper deck and waited for the arrival of the pair. This pissed her off even more. Not only was her beauty sleep interrupted, but those that caused all the commotion were actually friendlies! Now it was clear to her that it was nothing more than a complete waste of time. Things got worse when she saw that one of the pilots wasn't even bothered by what they just did. It was one thing after another, and before she knew it, a fist was already heading her way. She wasn't a good dodger, so she just braced for impact and hoped that it wouldn't be so bad._

_"Don't." Silve's grip tightened, but his face and his tone were still normal. "Don't lay a hand on my partner."_

_She hesitantly opened her eyes and saw Silve tightly holding the other pilot's wrist._

_END OF FLASHBACK_

"Why the hell did he do that?" she murmured, covering her face with her palm. "That guy's starting to freak me out."

_FLASHBACK_

_They reported to the captain's office as they have been ordered. She came in with Silve and Yuan, while Nicholas went ahead of them. The two Astray pilots sat on one side of the room, and the four of them on the other. The tension in the air was so thick it could stop armor-piercing rounds. It was even thicker than the tension that could be cut by a knife. The short-haired pilot, who she came to know as 1st Lieutenant Tatiana Lancris, was glaring daggers at her. It felt like she'd try to kill Natalie the moment she gets a chance. The other one, 1st Lieutenant Narrelle Clarris, was trying her best to distract Tatiana, but it was clearly failing. Luckily for them, the Captain was about to begin the meeting._

_Time slowly ticked by. They went through the plans for the ship's route, the next course of action for them, and other things which Natalie didn't pay attention to. Then things moved on to the history of the Astray Squadron, and their options for reuniting the entire team. For the blonde, time was moving agonizingly slow. A fast forward button was something she was hoping for. First, she was tapping her finger, then it was her foot. She was seriously getting impatient, and apparently, someone else was losing her patience. She looked up and saw how each tap of her foot agitated her 'favorite' pilot, Tatiana. A small smirk appeared on her face and she continued tapping her foot. It was only a matter of time before Tatiana reacted._

"_Would you please stop that infernal tapping?" she said in a loud voice._

"_Apparently, you're the only one disturbed by it." she raised an eyebrow, keeping the pace of her tapping foot. _

"_Why you…" she stood up and grabbed Natalie by the collar, "You've got some nerves talking like that to your superior officer!"_

"_Do you always get so worked up so quickly? I've seen cadets act more professional than you."_

"_WHAT DID YOU SAY?" her grip tightened, and this time, she lifted Natalie up._

"_1st Lieutenant, I order you to put her down!" Cheska stood up and slammed the table. However, there seemed to be no stopping Tatiana._

"_I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU!" she slammed Natalie's back against the wall. Natalie winced in pain, but didn't fight back… at least, not physically._

"_You're mentally unstable." she smirked. Sure, her mood was bad that day. And this was somehow helping lighten her mood. _

"_Enough, Natalie!"_

_She heard Silve's voice. She was hurt that she was already being attacked, and he chose to yell at her. Tears started to well up on her eyes, and all of a sudden, she lost all urges to further agitate Tatiana. However, it was Tatiana's turn to be on the offensive._

"_You've insulted me enough, 2nd Lieutenant!" Tatiana tried to slam her on the wall once again. Everyone got off their seats and tried to subdue her, but all she needed were her arms. Just as she was about to slam Natalie on the wall for the second time around, she felt two sets of impacts that hit her at the same time. One was on her wrists and the other was on the opposite of her elbow. She felt her grip loosen and her arms fold, in addition to the agonizing pain that she felt on those two points. Within less than two seconds later, another impact hit her on the chest, which pushed her away from Natalie. Fortunately for her, there were two guys holding on to her and she didn't get thrown off. As soon as she regained her balance, she saw two people standing beside Natalie; Silve and Narelle. Judging by their positions, Silve was the one that dislodged her grip from Natalie and it was Narelle that hit her on the chest that pushed her away. Feeling that she was betrayed by the only person she thought was on her side, Tatiana pushed away Yuan and Nicholas, then abruptly left the Captain's office._

"_I guess that means the meeting's off, huh Captain?" Nicholas turned to Cheska, who could only sigh. _

_Natalie, on the other hand, simply left without saying a word. Deep down, she knew that she was at fault, but she just couldn't bring herself to admit it. And knowing that, she didn't know how she should face everyone._

_END OF FLASHBACK_

She sighed as she lied in her bed. Now she didn't know what to do, and to make things worse, he was probably mad at her. Her actions were inexcusable, and whenever she remembered it, she would sigh and regret the things that she did. She then heard a knock on her door.

"Natalie, can I come in?"

"_It's him!" _her heart jumped in joy upon hearing his voice, but she was quick to go back to moping once she remembered what she did. "Why?"

"I just want to talk."

"Alright." she responded, turning to face the wall next to her bed. As she heard the door open, she swiftly remembered that she had nothing but underwear on. She grabbed her blanket and covered herself with it before he got in. Even so, she kept facing the wall, away from him.

As soon as he set foot in her room, he sat down on the edge of her bed, not even asking her if he could do so. A sudden awkwardness filled the atmosphere.

"You know, I never thought you were such a messy person." he said, pointing to the uniform she so hastily threw into the corner. "Seriously, do you always do that?"

"NO, I DON'T!" she yelled at him. _"Why does he have to say that? He's making it more awkward than it already is."_

"Well, it's fine even if you do…" he smiled at her, even though he knew that she wasn't even looking. "But, you know, what you did there wasn't exactly the smartest thing you did."

"I know that…" she curled up. She'd hate for him to see her guilt-ridden face. _"Damn. And now he's just rubbing it in. I seriously don't get this guy."_

"Yeah… Pretty stupid if you ask me." He nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders. "I'd say you had it coming."

"THEN WHY THE HELL DID YOU STOP IT? YOU COULD'VE LET HER BEAT ME UP!" she screamed. This time though, she was already crying. She didn't care what he saw, she just faced him and let the blanket fall to her bed. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?"

Silve was taken aback by the sudden outburst from her. It was so bad, he didn't have the luxury to appreciate the view that he had unraveling before his eyes. His eyes and mind were focused on one thing: Natalie crying.

"I guess I just couldn't bear to see you get hurt." Silve's face turned serious, and his face looked like he was regretful about something. "I should've acted faster than I did. The moment she laid a hand on you, I should've intervened."

"Well, I could take care of myself." Natalie arrogantly said. Though she immediately softened and approached Silve from behind. She rested her head on his back and put her arms around his waist. "But thanks. Not just for defending me, but for stopping me."

"You sure get mushy quickly. You're even hugging me." Silve's face slowly turned red to match the color of his hair. Natalie just buried her face into his back and started crying.

"Idiot. You really know how to ruin a moment." Though tears were streaking down her cheeks, she was happy. Though he really rubbed it in, his presence alone helped her get over her sulking.

And the moment was further ruined when an alarm rang all over the ship.

"_THIS SHIP IS UNDER CODE YELLOW. I REPEAT, THIS SHIP IS IN CODE YELLOW. ALL PILOTS MUST BE ON STAND-BY IN THEIR UNITS IMMEDIATELY."_

"What the…?" Silve exclaimed. He then turned his eyes to his partner, whose grip felt tighter. "I know you're worried about Tatiana. So if you want, you can stay here. I'll leave the STRIDE on board, so you won't have to come."

She kept her head buried in his back. He felt her head turn back and forth a couple of times, which he took as her disagreement to his suggestion. He inwardly sighed, knowing any attempt to talk her out of this was futile.

"I have a single request if you really insist on heading out."

"What is it? It's nothing like making me pilot while wearing my underwear, is it?" with drops of tears still on her eyes, she winked and stuck out her tongue to tease him.

"Of course not. Why would I do that?" he quickly hid his embarrassed face from her. He then whispered to himself, "Though it's something I'd really enjoy seeing."

"I heard you, pervert." she released her hug and hit him on the back of his head. "Let's go."

"Alright."

- - - - - - -

Hundreds of kilometers, East-Northeast of Carpentaria…

"_CONDITION RED HAS BEEN DECLARED. CONDITION RED HAS BEEN DECLARED. ALL UNITS, PLEASE PROCEED TO THE BRIEFING ROOM IMMEDIATELY."_

Shannon and Claire, who were lounging around in the Minerva's briefing room, were surprised by the sudden declaration. Preparation was no longer needed for them since they were already in their flight suit. And before they could say a word to each other, all three of Minerva's pilots came in.

"We're going into battle again?" the sole female pilot, Lunamaria, complained. "It's been one battle after another! Can't they give us a rest?"

"We're ZAFT's wild card here on Earth. It's normal for the Alliance to go after us every chance they got." Rey said as he approached the main screen of the briefing room to open a link with the bridge.

"But with an entire fleet sunk like that, I'm surprised they still have things to throw at us." Shinn proudly said, referring to the fleet he sank near ORB. Not giving anyone a chance to react, the main screen was turned on and the Captain's face appeared.

"_WE HAVE AN UNKNOWN MOBILE SUIT IN THE VICINITY. IT'S NOT ON THE RADAR, BUT WE'VE VISUALLY VERIFIED ITS PRESENCE. IT'S PROBABLY A STEALTH UNIT, BUT SINCE IT SHOWED ITSELF, IT'S PROBABLY TRYING TO LURE US. IN OUR CONDITION, WE CAN'T OUTRUN THAT THING. THE BEST BET WOULD BE TO TAKE IT HEAD ON. WE OUTNUMBER IT THREE TO ONE IN AERIAL COMBAT AND FIVE TO ONE IN OVERALL NUMBERS. THE LEGACY PHASEMAKER AND THE GOUF IGNITED ARE ALSO IN TOP CONDITION, SO IT WOULD BE FINE. HOWEVER, AS MEMBER OF FAITH, YOU CAN DECIDE IF YOU WANT TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS BATTLE OR NOT."_ Talia said, her last few words referring to Shannon.

"We'll go. The ship's shape is so bad, it could be sunk by a small number of grunts." Shannon's careless comment immediately irked Shinn.

"What did you say? Don't you think I can protect this ship? I just took down an entire fleet! What's a single Mobile Suit?" the hot-headed Shinn quickly fired back.

"And apparently, you got owned by a single Mobile Suit. Had we arrived a minute or two later than we did, you'd all be swimming with the fishes." Shannon raised his gaze to meet with Shinn's. Though the younger pilot was obviously getting fired up, Shannon was nowhere near Shinn's enthusiasm and was as calm and composed as he usually was. Shinn was struck silent by the FAITH member's words. Not wanting the situation to get out of hand, Talia quickly dismissed the pilots and sent them to their units.

"_THE MINERVA WILL KEEP HEADING FOR CARPENTARIA AS PLANNED. PLEASE HOLD OFF THE ENEMY MOBILE SUIT UNTIL WE'VE GAINED A FAVORABLE DISTANCE. REY AND LUNAMARIA WILL BE IN CHARGE OF CLOSE QUARTERS COMBAT."_

- - - - - - -

Hundreds of kilometers, Northeast of Carpentaria...

Natalie was already in the STRIDE Flyer's cockpit, which in turn was already attached to the Azure Strike. With the addition of three Astrays to their combat team, the STRIDE was no longer needed as a full-time front-liner but moved to a permanent support role for the Azure Strike. If needed, however, the STRIDE can easily detach from the Azure Strike and retrieve a Striker Pack from the Legacy, either to deliver it to the Azure Strike or to use it in combat as an additional unit.

Without warning, Silve jumped into the STRIDE's cockpit, completely surprising Natalie.

"Ah!" she managed to yelp before Silve landed on her lap. In a fighter-type cockpit, it was pretty tight. "Silve! Get out! It's tight in here, and you're heavy!" she protested as she tried her best to push Silve out of the cockpit.

"I'm heavy? Yeah right." Silve grinned. "My arms are already bearing a majority of the weight, and the rest are on my knees."

Natalie looked around. Silve's arms were holding on to the top of the panels on her side, and his knees were on her armrests. She just smiled at him and poked his nose.

"I guess you're so heavy, I could feel it even though you're doing that."

"Yeah, right." Silve lowered himself to ease the burden on his limbs. "You know, just because we're in stand-by doesn't mean you have to wait in here. It's more comfortable outside."

"And you do know I feel awkward by being outside. Not after what I did earlier." Natalie turned her eyes from Silve. With him being so close to her, she could feel his gaze piercing through her, like no amount of armor or clothing can protect her. She felt like his eyes could see everything when it comes to her. And this made her even more awkward. "Could you please stop staring?"

"Well, it's not like I can look somewhere else in this position."

"True… But regardless…" she paused for a few moments. Silve somehow knew she was going to scream. "GET OUT!"

"_THE SHIP'S STATUS HAS BEEN UPGRADED TO CODE RED. THE SHIP'S STATUS HAS BEEN UPGRADED TO CODE RED."_

Silve, who was now standing outside the cockpit, reached for the control console inside the STRIDE Flyer and contacted the bridge.

"What's this all of a sudden?"

"_WE HAVE A COUPLE OF UNIDENTIFIED MOBILE SUITS ON VISUAL, BUT WE ONLY HAVE ONE ON RADAR. WE'VE ALSO DETECTED AN UNKNOWN BATTLESHIP FURTHER AHEAD. WHILE UNLIKELY, IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THE UNKNOWN UNITS CAME FROM THE UNKNOWN SHIP."_

"Roger." Silve closed the link. He turned his attention to Natalie and lightly tapped her cheeks. "Forget about what happened earlier. I'll need you out there."

Natalie didn't utter a word. She just nodded and put on her helmet. Silve also put on his and immediately climbed on the Azure Strike's cockpit. As his screen activated, he could see the other pilots scrambling to their units, with a sudden flash from their Mobile Suits' eyes signifying that the units have been activated. The units that first headed for the catapult were the three Astray units. On the top-center catapult was F22, piloted by Yuan Austur. On the left catapult was F05, piloted by Narelle Clarris. Finally, on the right catapult was F01, piloted by Tatiana Lancris.

"Yuan Austur, F22 heading out!" the first Astray F shot out of the Legacy. Since it was directly from ORB, it didn't carry the same Striker Pack the other two Astrays were carrying. Instead, it was equipped with a new Striker pack. It was pretty much the same as the usual Astray F configuration, but it was lighter than the usual, focusing more on speed and offense than an all-around capability. It carried an improved Mini-Aile, supplemental leg-thrusters, two shoulder-mounted and two hip-mounted beam sabers, two wing-tip beam blades, two beam pistols, the head-mounted CIWS, and a total of 30 anti-air missiles on its wings. It was initially nameless, but the crew decided to call it the Pfeil Striker Pack.

"Tatiana Lancris, F01 is taking off." the second Astray F to take off was the F01, armed to the teeth with its usual configuration. Though heavily armed, the efficiency of its thrusters was so great, it could fight toe-to-toe with most lightly-armed aerial units. Though in this case, the F01 was obviously being outpaced by the F22.

"This is F05, launching!" Narelle's unit was hurled into the sky, quickly joining the other two Astrays that were already heading off to fight.

"_I GUESS IT'S OUR TURN." _Nicholas' face appeared on the communications screen of the Azure Strike. _"I'LL BE GOING AHEAD."_

As soon as his face disappeared from the screen, Silve could hear the loud roar of the Blitz's thrusters. Through major upgrades in its propulsion, it was able to fly in the Earth's atmosphere, unlike its short-lived twin. But perhaps all that upgrade also meant all that noise from the raw power the thrusters produced.

"Ready, Natalie?" Silve asked his partner through the voice-only link.

"_READY BEFORE YOU WERE."_

"In that case, let's get moving." Silve guided the Azure Strike into the launch platform, firmly placing its feet on the launcher pads. Large gates closed behind it, while at the same time, panels from all sides were opening. Coming down from the top was the Skies Striker pack, Azure Strike's atmospheric equipment. On the left was the solid defense shield, being attached to the left arm's mount. The right panel opened and revealed a beam rifle, which the Azure Strike grabbed and held on to.

"_SKIES STRIKER HAS BEEN MOUNTED. BRIDGE GAVE US THE GREEN LIGHTS."_ Natalie informed Silve.

"In that case, we'll be going." Silve leaned back and gripped the controls. "Silve Almana and Natalie Mia Halcyone… Take us to the sky, Azure Skies!"

The gray Mobile Suit flew out of the ship, and upon spreading its wings, discarded its monochromatic color in favor of its Phase Shift-induced color. It quickly caught up with the 4 units that came ahead of them.

"_It's not my first time seeing it but…" _Tatiana thought deeply while keeping her gaze on the Azure Skies' image on the left of her screen. _"…I'm sure it's the same Mobile Suit that passed us when we were fighting the EAF near the border. Is that the 'decoy' the High Admiral was talking about?"_

- - - - - - -

Hundreds of kilometers, East-Northeast of Carpentaria…

"Captain, the number of Mobile Suits on visual has increased from 1 to 2. Another unit has arrived and is currently moving along the path of the first unit." Meyrin informed Talia of the development. "And also, we have a large heat source at 1 o'clock. I can't tell what ship it is, it's still too far for identification. But it's slowly heading this way."

"What?" the ever outspoken Arthur reacted ahead of the Captain. "Is it from the Alliance?"

"Unknown, sir. Radar signals coming from it are quite… erratic." Meyrin, unsure of what was happening, tried her best to put into words what she was seeing on her screen. "It's not transmitting an IFF code and any radio signature is too badly affected by interference."

"So it's like a ghost ship?" Talia began biting her nail again, a habit she had when faced with dire problems.

"G-ghost ship, Captain?" Meyrin had tears forming around her eyes, and she was quite visibly trembling.

"Relax, Meyrin." the Captain sighed. Even though she was part of the military, Meyrin was still a child at heart. "It's not the kind of ghost ship you'll see in horror stories. I just said that since it's displaying such erratic readings."

"Aaah… I see." Meyrin, obviously relieved, returned to her job.

"In any case, deploy all units."

"Roger!"

In a matter of seconds, the Core Splendor, the GOUF Ignited and the Legacy Phasemaker were airborne, taking one catapult each. The ZAKUs jumped into the deck to act as additional guns for the ship. The three Mobile Suits, on the other hand, moved forward to attack the suspicious units.

- - - - - - -

A pilot smiled as he two sets of Mobile Suits come at him, one from his left and one from his right.

"One, two, three, four, five…" he counted, then turned to his left, "…six, seven, eight."

He stopped moving around and hovered in mid-air, as if waiting for the two sets to converge on him and unleash an attack. His unit, which bears a striking resemblance to the Saviour except for its color and strange contours, transformed into its Mobile Suit mode. The other unit, on the other hand, also looked like the Saviour, but white, and hand a simpler overall appearance. It also transformed and faced the opposite direction of his unit, revealing a mono-eyed head in contrast to his Gundam-styled head.

"Let the battle begin."

- - - - - - -

**A/N: **That's it for now. I'm sure you could tell what each ship was seeing, and what they saw as "unknown ships". I'll also do a battle that's more than the usual point-and-shoot, so I guess that's something to look forward to. That's it for now.


	18. Phase 17: The Ghost and the Goddess Pt2

330 kilometers, East of Solomon Islands, Pacific Ocean…

As the two teams of Mobile Suits charged in, the one caught in between didn't seem to mind what was happening. As a matter of fact, he opened his screen and _warmly _welcomed them.

"_SO I'M HAVING AN ENCOUNTER WITH THE TWO SHIPS THAT HAVE BEEN MAKING NEWS LATELY."_ its pilot said. _"THE ZAFT BATTLESHIP MINERVA AND THE EQUATORIAL UNION BATTLESHIP LEGACY."_

"Did he just say Equatorial Union?" Talia asked, taken completely by surprise. "That ship is from the Equatorial Union?"

"But, Captain, isn't the Equatorial Union part of the Alliance now? Could it mean that they're here to hunt us?" Arthur said with complete pessimism. Somehow, he knew how to make a bad situation worse. Talia rubbed her head in annoyance. Though it really was a bad time for him to blurt it out, she admitted that it was a possibility. It was not just a bad idea, it was a very bad idea.

" It would be bad if they really came here to hunt us." Talia then turned to Meyrin. "What's the update on the situation?"

"The distance between us and the ship we tagged as the Equatorial Union battleship Legacy is rapidly decreasing. The Legacy Phasemaker, the Impulse and the GOUF Ignited are currently engaging the unknown units that appeared. However, there are five units that are coming in from the north." she replied. "Probably from the Legacy. They're closing in on the unknown units as well."

"_LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO MY UNIT, THE ZGMF-ST23SN SAVIOUR STEALTH-TYPE. AND FOR COURTESY'S SAKE, I'LL ALSO INTRODUCE MYSELF. MY NAME IS…"_

Before he could continue, the team from the Legacy arrived and he was immediately attacked by its team leader's Astray F. It shot a burst of rounds from the gatling gun, but the bullets were effectively stopped by the Phase Shift. However, she kept firing until she got within striking distance. It was only then that she stopped firing, but it was instantly followed by an upward strike of the 9.1m anti-ship sword. Again, the Phase Shift Armor was able to prevent any damage.

"_AS FAR AS I REMEMBER, YOUR SQUADRON IS THE ELITE OF THE EQUATORIAL UNION. THE ASTRAY F IS YOUR ONLY MOBILE SUIT THAT YOU HAVE, OTHER THAN THE CUSTOM ASTRAYS FOR THE HIGHER OFFICERS. I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT AN ELITE SOLDIER SUCH AS YOU CAN'T DISCERN THE EFFECT OF BEAM WEAPONS AND CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS ON PHASE SHIFT ARMOR." _the Saviour's pilot mocked. Even though they've had him on their screens for quite a while, his face was hidden from their view because of his helmet's gold tint. Even his suit was as black as his unit, giving them all the impression that before them was someone extremely secretive.

"WHAT? Are you mocking me?" Tatiana yelled at her opponent. She threw away her sword and replaced it with a beam saber. This time, she went with a downward slash, and it almost connected had it not been for the white unit that accompanied the Saviour. As its support unit parried Tatiana's attack, the Saviour was about to launch a counter attack using its plasma beam cannons when it was tackled by the other Astray F, F05 piloted by Narelle. The black Saviour got knocked back a couple of meters away. Even though his computer warned him of an imminent attack, the Astray F was too fast and hit him just as he was about to dodge. Before he could regain his balance, the Azure Skies swooped from above with beam sabers in hand. This time, the Saviour's plasma beam cannons have already been folded and movement is back to normal. He quickly moved away from the beam saber's point of impact and parried it with his own beam saber. Though it was successful, he was fighting an uphill battle. The Azure Skies' downward momentum was incredibly hard to stop, and to make matters worse, it was pushing with its thrusters. Though not yet at full power, the heavier Azure Skies was easily overpowering the lighter Saviour, whose thrusters were already at maximum.

"_ISN'T THAT ZAFT'S AZURE STRIKE? THE ZGMF-X03A?"_ the pilot asked. Somehow, he was able to maintain his cool even when he was fighting with the odds stacked against him.

"What if it is?" Silve gritted his teeth and pushed on the thrusters even more. It seemed as though it was only a matter of seconds before the Saviour was overpowered. But before it could happen, their alarms rang and a very powerful beam was heading their way. They both dodged the attack, breaking the crossed swords and allowed the Saviour to move away to a safer distance. Silve, on the other hand, turned his attention to the origin of the attack. And on his right was, quite literally, the smoking gun. He could see the Legacy Phasemaker staying still in mid-air with both hybrid cannons drawn and pointed at them, with its barrels still red hot from the sheer intensity of its last shot. "What the hell is your problem?"

"_I WAS AIMING FOR THE OTHER UNIT. YOU WERE JUST IN THE LINE OF FIRE, THAT'S ALL." _Shannon's response came as monotonous as usual. Silve didn't respond. He knew that he had other things to worry about. Since the beginning of the battle, he was receiving an unusual sensation emanating from the stealth Saviour, making him feel somewhat queasy, but within manageable bounds. But by the looks on the blue-haired ZAFT pilot's face, he was rather bothered by it as well.

"Natalie." he opened his line to his partner, "Do you feel strange?"

Natalie was puzzled by his sudden and strange question.

"_IF YOU MEAN STRANGE AS IN CONFUSED, YEAH, I AM. BUT OTHER THAN THAT, NOT REALLY. I FEEL PERFECTLY FINE."_ she told him. _"WHAT'S THE MATTER?"_

"N-nothing." Silve tried his best to hide it. He turned his attention back to the Saviour and its white companion, which by now were being ganged-up on by 3 Astray Fs, the Blitz, the Legacy Phasemaker, the GOUF Ignited and the Impulse. By the looks of things, the sheer number of enemies was beginning to overwhelm the Saviour, and based on its equipment and movements, it wasn't meant for fighting this many high-level targets at once. "Listen, we'll take our time aiming at our target, while he's busy with the others. Once we get an opening, I'll shoot. Keep an eye out for me. And please activate the STRIDE's sensors. It's been turned off since we launched as a single unit. We wouldn't want him to know we're locked on to him."

"_ROGER."_

The Azure Skies drew out its beam rifle and took aim at the Saviour. While it was intended to be stealthy, they could now see it on their radar since it transformed into its Mobile Suit form. However, all the chaotic movements and friendly units moving into the line of fire made it extremely hard to properly aim at the target. Natalie pushed a button and the cockpit displays darkened, which took a few seconds and then it brightened up again. Though she could clearly see through the STRIDE's clear canopy, she knew she'd get a better understanding of the situation. Just moments ago, she was merely taking in information from the Azure Strike's sensors. It was her job to be Silve's second set of eyes since his own eyes were fixed on the battle itself and he has less time to check his panels. While it was true that he could handle it on his own, having someone else check it for him greatly lightened his load and allowed him to focus more on the battle. This time, however, the Azure Strike's ranged sensors and communications were rendered useless by the STRIDE's jammer and it was only her equipment that was working properly.

The stealth-type Saviour, on the other hand, was barely dodging the attacks thrown at it. Its pilot, however, was still able to discover one detail that was almost negligible to all but the most attentive pilots.

"_No Mobile Suit has been taken down yet, and no unit that has retreated either. But why is there one missing?" _ he wondered. He tried his best to dodge the melee attacks of the other units, and it was turning out to be quite successful. However, he failed to notice the GOUF Ignited coming in closer. It was too late when he realized the GOUF's proximity since its retractable whip was already wrapped around the Saviour's waist.

"_GOT YOU." _Claire mocked the pilot. She spun the GOUF Ignited around numerous times threw it upwards. This was the opening that Silve was waiting for. He shot the Saviour and directly hit it in the joint between the torso and the right arm. The severity of the damage rendered the right arm unusable.

"_WELL, WELL… I'M SURPRISED THE COMPUTER DIDN'T DETECT YOU WHEN YOU WERE AIMING FOR ME." _the unnamed pilot openly declared his admiration for the feat, _"BY ANY CHANCE WERE YOU USING MANUAL TARGETTING?"_

"Can't say that I wasn't." Silve responded. With the STRIDE's sensor-jammers, they were invisible to all but visual sensors, but their own sensors were working as they normally would.

"_WELL, IN THAT CASE, IT-!" _before the Saviour's pilot could finish, another large beam was heading for him, this time, from the left. He turned and saw the battleship Legacy with one of its _Logres _positron cannon deployed. _"CAN'T ANY OF YOU LET ME FINISH TALKING?"_

"This is a battle. Etiquette isn't that much of a necessity." the F22 and the White Blitz ganged up on the Saviour. First, an all-out missile barrage was launched by the Astray F, followed by the Blitz's own lancer darts from the Trikeros shield. A few of the missiles landed a hit, but the others have been shot down by the Saviour's CIWS. The lancer darts, however, were about to hit him when the white unit intervened and used itself as a shield, taking the damage and getting destroyed. He immediately transformed back into Mobile Armor mode and flew off. In this mode, no one could catch him and he was quickly out of their firing range. Once he got to a safe distance, he transformed back into Mobile Suit mode and once again opened a line.

"_WELL, IT'S ABOUT TIME WE END THIS LITTLE GAME AND GET ON TO BUSINESS. I WAS ONLY SUPPOSED TO DO SOME INFORMATION GATHERING, BUT I SUPPOSE I'D HAVE TO PULL OUT ALL STOPS."_

Silve, on the other hand, was feeling worse than he did earlier. Though still within manageable bounds, it was starting to become a bother.He gathered all his strength just to maintain his focus. It was like something was heavily bothering him, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was exactly. However, Shannon was handling the situation better. They all watched as the FAITH pilot pointed all his available guns downwards and started firing madly at the ocean.

"_WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? THE ENEMY'S UP THERE!" _Shinn protested. He let out an angry sigh and then flew up towards the Saviour, shooting his beam rifle at it. However, before he got very far, he was pulled by the GOUF Ignited's whip.

"Hold your horses, Asuka." Claire said as she released her grip on the Impulse's leg. "Shannon felt something again. Isn't that right?"

"_YEAH. YOU REALLY ARE WHO I THINK YOU ARE. YOU EVEN REMEMBER THAT." _Shannon smiled. Somehow, it turned out that he was right about his guess. _"BUT LET'S REMINISCE HAVE BIGGER PROBLEMS TO ATTEND TO."_

Claire looked down and watched as some debris floated to the surface of the ocean, with some pieces appearing to be quite familiar. But the black Saviour's pilot was going to spare them the trouble of finding out what it was.

"_I WAS PLANNING A SNEAK ATTACK FROM BELOW, BUT I GUESS YOU'RE JUST LIKE ME YOU SENSED WHAT I WAS ABOUT TO DO."_

"So you did know?" Shinn asked Shannon. "How did you know?"

"_AS HE SAID, I SENSED IT. REY SENSED THIS GUY'S PRESENCE A WHILE AGO, AND SO DID WERE KEEPING IT TO OURSELVES. THIS GUY'S NO ORDINARY PILOT." _Shannon replied.

"_IN ANY CASE, I'LL SHOW YOU MY HAND. SEEING HOW A SNEAK ATTACK FAILED BECAUSE THERE ARE TWO OF YOU HERE WHO COULD SENSE IT. I'LL GO WITH A FULL FRONTAL ATTACK FROM NOW ON."_

"_Two of us? Rey's back at the ship. How can there be two of us here?" _Shannon thought to himself as he carefully watched the black Saviour approach slowly. It was true that he could sense the presence of another like him, but it was very weak. In other words, he felt like this presence was just _warming up_, and not hot enough to trigger a reaction. He knew it was among the 5 Mobile Suits that came from the Equatorial Union, but he didn't know which one. As the Saviour got even close, it transformed back into Mobile Suit mode, while at least 15 units shot out from the water and formed behind the black unit. The 15 units, all looking like the earlier one that took the damage from the Trikeros, were seemingly identical.

"_THESE ARE THE ZGMF-23RT SAVIOUR REMOTE-TYPE. I'M SURE YOU CAN GUESS WHAT THESE UNITS DO."_

"Why are you using ZAFT Units?" Shannon asked, or more like threatened to know since he had his guns pointed at what they now tagged as the lead unit.

"_DON'T GET THE WRONG IDEA. THIS ISN'T A ZAFT UNIT."_

"Yeah right!" Shinn charged in with beam saber in hand. However, a pair of the remote Saviours intercepted him. The first one tried to land a knee on the face of the Impulse, but Shinn skillfully dodged and slashed its leg off. The second one appeared directly in Shinn's path, with its beam rifle aimed forward. Letting out a flurry of shots, Shinn kept charging with his shield taking the brunt force of the attack. He rammed the shield into the second intercepting unit and cut it in half with a horizontal slash. He turned his attention to the dark unit, but before he could get any closer, 5 more remote Saviours stopped him, launching a flurry of punches and kicks which sent Shinn flying off in the other direction. This, of course, was taking a heavy toll on the battery of the Impulse. _"I only have a few more minutes left before I'm out of power."_

"_NOW THAT I HAVE YOUR UNDIVIDED ATTENTION, AND NOW THAT I HAVE THE MEANS TO STOP ME FROM TALKING, I'LL INTRODUCE MYSELF. PAY ATTENTION, ZAFT'S GODDESS AND EQUATORIAL UNION'S GHOST." _the pilot paused and opened his helmet for everyone to see his face.

"I-It can't be…" Nicholas had a horrified look on his face. "It's just not possible."

"_THAT'S RIGHT. I AM NICOL AMALFI." _the green haired pilot smiled. _"AND I AM A NEWTYPE."_

- - - - - - -

**A/N: **My craziness kicked in again and I just did something insane for this chapter. I'm pretty sure you all know that this guy isn't the original Nicol Amalfi. Unlike Fllay who wasn't exactly shown as "dying", we all saw his head pop inside his helmet. Of course, the same goes for Tolle who had his head decapitated. Mwu, as far as we knew, was dead until Fukuda used Monster Reborn on him. I've also introduced the word "Newtype" into the CE timeline. Quite clearly, Kira, Rey, Neo, Rau and Prayer were CE's Newtypes, but I'll add Shannon to that. That's it for now. Things will start to get dark from here on out. I'll lessen the comedy and focus more on serious issues.


End file.
